The Railways had last year called for global tenders offering `right of way'for laying optic fibre cable (OFC) along railway tracks in the four sectorscovering about 15,000 km.

According to sources, the Board is of the view that KRCL should follow thebidding route like other telecom companies. The Board and KRCL are in doubleminds since offering KRCL one of the sectors may invite controversy.

Besides the four sectors, the Railways had granted right of way to otherundertakings Ircon International and RITES Ltd for Delhi-Mumbai andMumbai-Chennai sections.

More than 25 telecom companies, including Bharti Telecom, HFCL, LucentTechnologies, BPL, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Power, Alcatel and Siemens, havebought the bid documents. Public sector Telcom Consultants of India (TCIL),RITES and Ircon have also shown interest for the four sectors.

KRCL is looking at the project since it is feels that it has the requiredexpertise. The corporation is also looking for avenues for additionalresource generation since freight movement on its line has failed togenerate expected volumes so far.

KRCL is dependent on the Railway Board for support to pay back its marketborrowings. It gets Rs 260-400 crore per annum in the form of short-terminterest free loans from the board.

According to sources, by granting the `right of way', the Railways, which isfacing financial crisis, will ease its burden.

The Railways had in July signed two agreements with RITES and Ircon forlaying the 3,300 km of OFC. The two companies have been authorised to formjoint ventures while keeping 50 per cent of the equity with themselves.RITES has entered into a joint venture with BPL for the purpose while Irconhas tied up with Enron and British Telecom.

The Railways will receive 20 per cent of the profit made by the PSU jointventures and also get free service in exchange for the right of way.

Ircon will lay OFC along the 1,400 km Delhi-Jaipur-Ahemdabad-Mumbai sectionwhile RITES will lay the cables along the 1,900 km Mumbai-Pune-Chennaisection.

The Board had postponed the last date for submission of bids for the foursectors following a request from the telecom companies which wanted to waitfor the long distance telecom policy. Though the Telecom RegulatoryAuthority of India (TRAI) has submitted a policy paper, the government isyet to take a decision.