Rs 100 crore Tetra wireless system ‘ill-conceived '

Slamming the government's decision to adopt the secure telecommunication system, Tetra, for legacy use after Commonwealth Games, the CAG report has called the decision "ill-conceived" , claiming that proper assessment of the requirements of the main user, Delhi Police, and other public agencies was not carried out.

While Delhi Police conveyed its dissatisfaction with the signal quality of the rented sets and termed the system a"failure" , the report pointed out that the 3,657 rented sets could not replace the police's existing radio communication system of nearly 11,000 sets.

Instead of the Tetra system , it was the existing police communication network that was utilized successfully for security-related communication during the Games. Even the Organizing Committee (OC) could furnish details of distribution of only 150 sets to individuals and that, too, only at the Games Village. The details of distribution of the remaining 3,071 communication terminals to the OC could not be produced, beyond a broad deployment at 25 venues , as per the CAG.

The vendor (HCL-Motorola ) had raised a bill of Rs 9.46 crore for the CWG 2010 period from September to October 2010. The report suggests that, considering the detailed statistics available with the police, payment to HCL-Motorola for the sets deployed for use by the police should be appropriately deducted for "non-performance ." The 87-month Tetra contract had cost the Delhi government Rs 99.81 crore. Post CWG, most of these expensive Tetra sets (at rentals ranging from Rs 2,168 to Rs 2,365 per month) are, in effect, no more than mobile phones, states the report.

Despite Delhi Police expressing their intention to limit their participation in the Tetra system only to CWG 2010, and withdrawing the previously projected requirement for the seven-year legacy period, they were effectively forced to go along with the proposal.

Source: www.timesofindia.com