DoT employees will, however, be given the option to remain in the government if they so wished.

Disclosing this to newspersons here, Union minister for communications Sushma Swaraj said that under the corporatisation plan, DoT will get a new name - India Telecom - which will be a 100 per cent government-owned PSU in the initial phase. Before the announcement, Swaraj held a meeting with Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha during which she got the nod for a final go-ahead for the corporatisation plan.

She said that the department would prepare a draft Cabinet note within a fortnight. On his part, the finance minister would consult the expenditure department of his ministry to complete other details.

The corporatisation plans of DoT would involve an extra burden of Rs 12,000 crore on the government's part on account of pensionaryfunds and gratuity. The communications ministry has placed three options before the finance ministry to prepare the balancesheet for the new corporate identity.

Though there will be no cash transaction involved between the communication and the finance ministries, one has to wait for the latter's decision to see whether the corporation gets an interest holiday, equity or loan amount, Swaraj stated.She further said that with the corporatisation of DoT, the deemed deputation status of the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) would be abolished. In the first phase, the Group C and D employees would be transferred to DoT.

The DoT secretary would meet the expenditure secretary on Saturday to finalise the financial implication of the corporatisation proposal, Swaraj added.

She also announced that the ministry had decided to allow authorised internet service providers (ISP) to set up international gateways for data transmission. Currently, the department of telecommunication (DoT) has six gateways for thepurpose.