The government has initiated process to monetise Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s (BSNL) telecom factory including a heritage building located in prime area of Kolkata. This is third assets to be monetised, however, there was no success in first two cases.

“NLMC proposes to appoint International Property Consultants (IPCs) for monetization of non-core assets belonging to BSNL which are in the form of land & buildings, located in Kolkata,” a notice on the website of National Land Monetization Corporation Limited said.

The Factory at Alipore is located at the city’s prime area, just opposite to majestic Kolkata race course, which hosts horse racing tournaments.

The property is freehold and is owned by BSNL for Dwelling house. The year of construction of Admin/Engineering Bldg, Plant & shed and security rest room is 1947 and of Sub-station and Boundary wall is 1982. The Total area available for monetization is 52,178 SqMtr including 10,014 Sq Mtr of Heritage building area, the notice said. The type of structure is Load bearing brick masonry.

The property, a part of which is heritage building area, is very near to iconic Victoria Memorial. “In the bidding process it has been mentioned that since it is a heritage property, the heritage part should have to be maintained. Heritage laws will have to be followed,” a senior BSNL official told businessline.

It will be the third property in Kolkata and suburbs, owned by troubled BSNL, which is undergoing monetisation process. Earlier, many telecom related equipment, including handsets and boxes, were produced at the factory. Now, it only produces PLB pipes, which are used to lay optical fibre cables (OFC) for telecommunications.

“Mostly, PLB pipes are being produced here. But we will shift this operation from here to the Kharagpur unit. Gopalpur factory has already been closed and Alipore will be closed after the finalisation of the bidder,” the official cited above said.

The company has plans to continue operations of telecom factory in Kharagpur unit only in West Bengal. Located in West Medinipur district, the Kharagpur unit is a bigger factory compared to relatively small factories both in Alipore and Gopalpur in Kolkata. “Plans for BSNL’s land monetisation in Kolkata and suburbs have not been successful so far,” another senior BSNL official said.

Two properties of BSNL had already been gone through monetisation process, but the exercise was not successful as no bidder had come. The properties were in Barrackpore and Madhyamgram in North 24 Parganas district. For the Barrackpore property, the RFP process ended December last year, but no bidder came. It was the second attempt to sell.