Inside Pages9Final.indd - Ministry of Power

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MINISTRY OF POWER
(ESPP) with public consultation. Committees of eminent
independent experts have been constituted to advice
POWERGRID on various strategic issues related
to Environmental and Social Safeguards, financial
management, procurement and project execution.
POWERGRID follows fair, equitable and transparent policies
for all stake holders. Towards maintaining transparency in
the procurement process, the invitations for bids (IFB) are
widely published in National Dailies, Trade Journals and
webcast on websites of the company/ MOP/CEA. Copies
of the same are sent to all qualified contractors associated
with POWERGRID in the past. In addition, the IFBs related
to ICB are also published in international newspapers
along with copies to Embassies / High commissions.
To continue this process further, committees of eminent
experts have been constituted to advise on various
issues related to procurement, project implementation,
financial and environmental & social safeguards aspects
etc. The purpose of such committees is to bring more
transparency & efficiency in our decision making process.
The committees would not only provide guidance but
critically evaluate POWERGRID’s working.
CONVERGENCE WITH TELECOM
The synergic convergence between transmission and
telecom technologies promises unique opportunities as
has already been established worldwide in developed and
developing countries. Opening up of the domestic long
distance telecom sector in India offered an opportunity to
POWERGRID in line with worldwide trend to exploit telecom
market through convergence of power and telecom sector
by making available a cost effective, high quality telecom
infrastructure on its existing and planned transmission
infrastructure and “to create value” for its business. Thus,
to exploit the synergy of transmission business with
advantages of inherent communication infrastructure,
POWERGRID diversified into Telecom business.
POWERGRID is in unique advantageous position in the
telecom industry as it is establishing its broadband optical
network on its overhead transmission lines, which is
sturdy, secure and free from any interference by pests or
vandalism. This is obvious because the optical network
would run along with EHV power transmission lines which
would be impossible to interfere with. On the other hand,
other telecom players are establishing underground
networks, which could suffer from problems of interference,
deliberate or otherwise. Added to this, POWERGRID has
provided overhead links with self resilient rings to ensure
highest availability of the network.
Out of the total planned telecom network of 20,000 Kms
POWERGRID has already established a network of
over 18,200 Kms (As on December, 2005) and enroute
has connected all the metros and major cities viz Delhi,
Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkotta, Bangalore, Hyderabad etc.
rural and remote areas in the country.
It is worth mentioning that POWERGRID connectivity covers
remote areas and other cities in various regions, which will
be of strategic interest to various telecom players viz.
• North-Eastern; Agartala, Guwahati, Imphal, Itanagar,
Kohima, Shillong, Tezpur, etc.
• Northern : Jammu, Pathankot, Srinagar, Udhampur,
Ambala, Chandigarh, Jallandhar, etc.
• Western: Bhopal, Indore, Nagpur, Jabalpur etc
• Southern : Cochin, Trivenderum, Trichur, Coimbatore
etc.
The complete network is expected to be fully operational
soon.
POWERGRID has deployed state-of-the-art Dense Wave
Division Multiplexing (DWDM)/ Synchronous Digital
Hierarchy (SDH) technology and is utilizing the latest G 652
fibres for its Optical Fiber Composite Overhead Ground
Wire (OPGW) which is installed on Extra High Voltage
(EHV) 400/220 KV transmission lines. The deployment of
flexible network architecture of high capacity DWDM/ SDH
is compatible with all the upper layer equipment including
Infrastructure Provider (IP) routers, Asynchronous Transfer
Mode (ATM) equipment etc. and can be integrated with
the system. The network is scalable from present capacity
of 120 Gbps to 15 Terabit capacity and is capable of both
Layer 1 - DWDM/ SDH and Layer 2 - switching using
Ethernet over SDH. The network supports Ethernet over
DWDM/ SDH on fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet levels.
The bandwidth capacity can be enhanced to terabit level
and can be provided as and when required.