NEW DELHI (PTI): The Union Government is considering leasing out telephone exchanges to private sector, communication minister Sukh Ram said.
The minister told the upper house of Parliament leasing of telephone exchanges to private sector was being considered to meet the resource crunch faced by the telecom sector.
He said 7.5 million new telephone connections were planned to be installed during the eighth five year plan (199297) and this required an investment of about Rs 400 billion.
But the finance ministry was allocated only Rs 250 billion, he said, the communication ministry wanted to bridge the gap by leasing out telephone exchanges to private sector.
The minister, however, said a final decision on it was yet to be taken.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 24, 1993
