Given a chance Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd would like to bid for these two states in a joint venture with Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd (TCIL), MTNL chairman and managing director S Rajagopalan said.

``But, I would like to bid on the basis of the revenue-sharing formula only and not the up front licence fee,'' Rajagopalan told PTI in an interview.In fact government should take a bold decision to follow only the revenue sharing formula in the future as this will benefit both parties, he added.The fourth round of bidding for basic services in various circles including Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal and North Eastern States among others has already begun.

MTNL will also be inviting tenders for its proposed smart card phone soon, Rajagopalan said adding ``we are planning to invite tenders for this by the end of this month.''

The tender will befor a complete network including central computer, mini- computers and telephone boxes,the MTNL chairman and managing director said.

It will be an on-line smart card system and it will be completely computerised so that health of the telephone boxes can be monitored continuously through computers, he added.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd is planning to put these telephone boxes in bulk numbers in the city, including public places and places of transit such as railway stations.

In basic services, about 11 circles are left for which bids have to be invited.

The government, it seems, has said no to MTNL for bidding. But nowhere has it mentioned that Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd should not bid for basic services in other circles, MTNL sources said.

Asked why MTNL was not interested in other circles for bidding for basic services, Rajagopalan said it will be difficult to take on so much of load.``We are looking for additional one or two circles and not more than that,'' he added.