Hughes to go ahead with telecom plans

MUMBAI, Aug 18: Hughes Network Systems (HNS) asserted today that it remains committed to its joint venture in India, Hughes Ispat Ltd (HIL). A statement issued by the company said that the telecom sector joint venture is going forward with its plans to provide basic telephone services in Maharashtra.

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.