KSEB had flagged tender violations in K-FON plan

Thiruvananthapuram: Even as the state government rejected the allegations against K-FON project implementation as baseless, KSEB is learnt to have confirmed the charges that Kerala state IT infrastructure Ltd (KSITL) had violated tender conditions for the purchase of optical ground wire (OPGW) cables.
KSEB, which is a key partner in the K-FON project, is learnt to have confided to the CAG that the OPGW cables were imported from China and the concerns expressed by KSEB regarding the quality of the Chinese cable was overruled by KSITL.
A portion of the unfinished CAG report leaked to the media claimed that the purchase of OPGW cables from China violated the basic tender condition that the components used for the project should be of Indian origin. It is alleged that the Haryana-based company, LS Cable India Pvt Ltd, from which the cable was purchased, had no facility to manufacture it and this was flagged by a KSEB team after a site visit.
KSEB did raise concern about the quality of the cable too. But KSITL is said to have decided to go by the claim of the LS Cable that 58% of the OPGW cable were Indian and hence the cable cannot be branded as Chinese. KSEB had also reported in 2019 itself that the optical unit that constitutes the core of the OPGW cable was also imported from outside the country.
Despite the KSEB report, KSITL refused to look into any of the aspects. Use of Indian-made products, or least products with more than 50% Indian-made components was a prerequisite to qualify for the benefits of the Make In India project, which KSITL has leveraged for the K-FON project.
Opposition leader V D Satheesan had earlier this week raised similar allegations against the cable purchase from LS Cable. Instead of using cables made in India with minimum 25 years guarantee, Chinese cables without guarantee were purchased for the K-FON project, he had alleged.
He also claimed that CM’s former principal secretary M Sivasankar approved a huge tender for the project.