BSNL land sale lags behind schedule in UP

New Delhi: The process of the sale of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd’s (BSNL’s) land in Lucknow has failed to catch pace, as the date of the submission of original documents has been extended for the second time.

The bidders for the land parcel, whose reserve price is Rs226 crore, have now been given the time till March 18 to submit the documents, official sources told Bizz Buzz, adding that the earlier date was March 4.

The government embarked on the programme of asset monetisation, which included among other things, the sale of assets (mainly land) of public-sector undertakings (PSUs) in 2019. BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) were among the PSUs whose land parcels the government decided to sell.

The government, however, is not happy with the pace of asset monetisation of the two telecom PSUs. While the assets approved for sale of BSNL are said to be worth more than Rs18,000 crore, those of MTNL are of over Rs5,000 crore. But the two PSUs have reportedly been able to earn just Rs550 crore from monetisation.

Many factors have hampered the process of land monetization, ranging from issues at the state and district levels to title ownership and valuations, the sources said.

Last month, the Cabinet Secretary held a meeting with the top brass of both BSNL and MTNL. He directed them to present a circle-wise report by May 30, the sources said.

It may be recalled that BSNL was given a revival package at a cost of Rs 1.64 lakh crore in 2022. Earlier too, in 2019, it was given a package of more than Rs 69,000 crore.

In order to execute the policy of asset monetisation, the BSNL board in 2021 decided to set up an oversight committee. The committee is tasked to oversee the process of the sale of immovable assets, verify the process of evaluation, etc.