Domestic telecom gear maker HFCL Thursday said it has bagged two orders of worth around Rs 502 crore for supply of optical fibre cable from Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and a consortium led by ITI. Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited (HFCL) said it is investing Rs 388 crore to ramp up production capacity of optical fibre cable and optical fibres to meet the market demand.

"Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited (HFCL) is pleased to announce that it has won orders of Rs 502.73 crore for supply of optical fibre cables (OFC) from Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and a consortium led by ITI," the company said in a statement.

The company has bagged order of Rs 147.73 crore for supply of 16,882 km OFC from L&T which is planned to be for creating OFC network infrastructure in Andhra Pradesh under BharatNet Phase-II Project.

The major part of order valued at around Rs 355 crore was granted from by an ITI led consortium to HFCL for supply of 37,798 km OFC to be deployed by them in Maharashtra under BharatNet Phase-II Project which aims to connect 1.5 lakh village panchayats with high speed broadband network.

The government has already connected over 1 lakh village panchayat under Bharat Net Phase 1.

Apart from contributing to the domestic projects, HFCL has been exporting OFC for broadband projects to 50 countries including those in Europe.

Considering above, HFCL is putting up a greenfield OFC manufacturing facility in Hyderabad with an estimated capex of Rs 110 crore which would manufacture 10.50 million fibre kilometre (FKM) OFC per annum. This would take company's standalone OFC capacity from existing 8 million fkm pa to 18.50 million fkm pa. The commercial production will start at a new facility by June, 2019," HFCL said.

In addition, the company with a capex of Rs 50 crore approximately is also expanding annual OFC manufacturing capacity of its subsidiary HTL Limited in Chennai from existing 4 million fkm to 7 million fkm, the statement said.

"The OFC expansion in HTL is likely to be completed by February, 2019 which will take the HFCL's consolidated OFC capacity to 25.50 million fkm per annum," HFCL said.

Besides OFC expansion, HFCL is planning to set up a greenfield optical fibre manufacturing facility at Hyderabad as a backward integration with a capex of Rs 228 crore which will enhance its operating margins.

"This plant will deliver 6.40 million fkm pa. Optical Fibre in Phase I. The plant is designed to scale up to 9.60 million fkm per annum in a short period. It is expected that the plant will be operational by July 2019," HFCL said.