State-owned ITI Ltd shares skyrocketed 18% after the company-led consortium won the lowest bid (L1) for a middle-mile network project valued at Rs 3,022 crore under the BharatNet umbrella.

ITI stated in an exchange filing on Thursday that the consortium, which includes ITI as a partner with a leading telecom manufacturing company, has won the lowest bid for a project in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands for Package No. 9, West Bengal for Package No. 8, and Himachal Pradesh for Package No. 8.

Of the 16 packages that have been offered so far, the ITI-led consortium has been the lowest bidder for two of the 11 packages for which tenders have opened nationwide.

These 16 packages cover the design, supply, construction, installation, upgrade, operation, and maintenance of the middle mile network.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) provides funding for the BharatNet project. By providing all Gram Panchayats (GPs) and villages in India with high-speed broadband connectivity with a capacity of 100 Mbps, the project seeks to close the “digital divide” and guarantee that everyone, particularly those living in rural regions, has fair access to internet services.

There is currently very little free float in the market because the government owns 90% of ITI.

At 3:03 pm, the shares of ITI were trading 16.70% higher at Rs 311 on NSE.

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