HIL is a joint venture between the Arkansas-based Alltel Corp, Ispat group of India and Hughes Electronics. The statement issued from HNS headquarters near Washington DC, Jack Shaw, Chief Executive Officer said ``We remain committed to our joint venture. It is true that difficulties in financing have arisen as a consequence of economic sanctions against India in wake of the nuclear blast. We invoked the `force measure' because the sanctions deprived the project of political risk insurance from US Exim-Bank on US $ 400 million of offshore debt thereby delaying the financial close indefinitely.''

It added that ``these factors could not have been anticipated and are definitely beyond our control. We hope andexpect that the government will appreciate this unusual situation and co-operate with us to resolve it.''Raju Patel, CEO of Hughes-Ispat Ltd, said that his company and its partners remained committed to basic telecom service for the Maharashtra circle.

"This is evident from the on-going construction and network development work in Mumbai, Navi-Mumbai and Pune," he said.