The project will involve laying fibre optic cables in telecom ducts. The state of the art, Cablejet technology to blow optic fibre inside the ducts was demonstrated at the newly-constructed Airoli bridge on the Mumbai-Pune expressway here on Monday. Once the telecom duct is laid, the optic fibre cables can be injected whenever required. Among those who witnessed the demonstration were cellular operators BPL and MaxTouch and fixed line operators Hughes Ispat, MTNL and DoT.

Bharti Duraline will lay 1,000 km of optic fibre, buriedin multiples of 10 for the MSRDC. Speaking to The Financial Express, MSRDC managing director RC Sinha said that he would retain one line for their own use and the others would be leased to telecom companies. The project cost of Rs 6 crore is expected to be recouped in four years, generating an income of Rs 1.5 crore per year, which is expected to increase significantly as the industry's demands for data transfer begin to rise.

For MSRDC, the income from leasing the fibre optic lines will be yet another source of funds, not accounted for in the original feasibility report. After the fifth year, MSRDC hopes to start generating profits, adding to cash flows as its debt servicing liabilities begin to mount. Also since the backbone is being constructed along with the expressway, costs have been kept to the minimum.

According to Sinha, "The information highway would increase the value of our right of way, besides offering the telecom and IT industry service providers a ready made network. They will nolonger have to worry about procuring right-of-way, digging and building their network."

Bharti Duraline CEO, Vijay Kiyaway, also feels that with data transfer needs of the industry growing extremely fast, the benefits of such projects will be huge.

Bharti Duraline is the country's first manufacturer of permanently solid lubricated HDPE telecom ducts. One of the smaller joint ventures of Bharti Enterprises, the company will focus on laying fibre optic backbones. The Mumbai-Pune expressway is the largest project bagged by the company.

The Rs 1,700-crore Mumbai-Pune expressway, which is marginally behind schedule right now, is expected to be commissioned on Jan 26, 2000. The state government is currently in the process of acquiring 1000 hectares of land which will be given to the MSRDC for commercial exploitation.

This has however hit a snag as some of the landowners have dragged the state government to court over the acquisition, claiming that commercial exploitation does not amount to public purposeeven for a public sector project. The delay in land acquisition could hit MSRDC quite hard, as it expects to raise Rs 180 crore from the project. In the light of these, alternative income generation, such as leasing the fibre optic backbone have become important revenue sources for the MSRDC.