The regional hub plans to route international telephone traffic originating from south Asia.

In a letter dated July 13, VSNL has informed the three shortlisted players -- Cable & Wireless, Global One and the British Telecommunications-MCI combine -- that the last date for submission of revised bids has been extended by four weeks.

Only the BT-MCI combine had submitted its revised bid before the initial deadline for submission of bids lapsed.

Sources said that VSNL has asked Cable & Wireless and Global One to specify within a week whether or not they are interested in submitting revised bids as they had failed to meet the June 11 deadline. The letter goes on to say that the duo will be given three more weeks within which to revise theirbids. It is understood that Cable & Wireless and Global One were lobbying hard for an extension of deadline. According to sources, they had claimed that the time between shortlisting and deadline for submission of revised bids was insufficient for a project of such magnitude.

A few weeks ago, the department of telecommunications disallowed the project from investing in infrastructure. According to the department, if the project invested in infrastructure, it would amount to breaking its monopoly on domestic long-distance services, which has been assured to it till 1999 as per the National Telecom Policy of 1994.

VSNL had, in the last week of May, shortlisted the bids of Cable & Wireless, Global One and BT-MCI from a total of seven it had received, and had given them time till June 11 to submit their revised proposals.

The shortlisting the bids has been delayed due to a gamut of reasons. Initially, a committee with members drawn up from the department of telecommunications and VSNL was constituted toshortlist the bids, which took time. The committee was then unable to meet for some time owing to the global depositary receipts issue of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam.

VSNL had initially planned to form a joint venture with BT-MCI for the hub, which was spiked by the department of telecommunications. The department, instead, forced VSNL to invite bids from national and international companies for the joint venture.

This meant a further delay in VSNL's plans as it had to come out with an offer inviting bids. By October 17, the last date for submission of bids in the first round, VSNL had received only seven offers, with global majors like AT&T and NTT of Japan deciding not to throw their hat into the ring.