HFCL wins ₹2,666 crore BharatNet contract in UP West circle

HFCL picked up a ₹2,666 crore contract from Rail Vikas Nigam for the BharatNet Phase-III project in the Uttar Pradesh (West) Telecom Circle. The order covers supply, installation, and commissioning of telecom equipment, an Optical Fiber Cable network, and 10 years of maintenance, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The contract breaks into ₹1,192.82 crore in capex and ₹1,473.27 crore in opex. HFCL will execute the project over two years, then run operations and maintenance for a decade, including a one-year warranty period.

This is the second BharatNet Phase-III award for HFCL from RVNL. The first, worth ₹2,167.65 crore, covered the UP (East) and UP (West) circles and was disclosed on January 23, 2025. The new order adds to that backlog.

BharatNet is the government's rural broadband push, targeting more than 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats. As of February, 2.14 lakh GPs were service-ready across phases I and II, with roughly ₹42,000 crore invested. The project aims to give mobile operators, ISPs, cable TV providers, and content companies last-mile access for services like e-health, e-education, and e-governance in rural areas. Execution runs through a special purpose vehicle, Bharat Broadband Network Limited.

For HFCL, the win extends its role in India's largest rural telecom buildout. The company now carries two Phase-III contracts from RVNL, with combined value exceeding ₹4,800 crore. Execution risk centers on the two-year deployment timeline and the 10-year maintenance commitment, which locks in opex revenue but ties capital to a single government program.

The stock market reaction will depend on margin visibility. HFCL did not disclose project margins in the filing. Investors will look for execution updates in quarterly reports, particularly on the earlier UP (East) and UP (West) contract, which is now in its deployment phase.