The Ministry of Electronics and IT has invited proposals for design, manufacturing, supply and maintenance of 10 lakh integrated NavIC and GPS receivers in the country. The proposal document stated, “MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and IT) seeks proposals from bidder to design, manufacture, supply and maintain Integrated NavIC and GPS chips and ensure deployment of Integrated NavIC and GPS receivers.” This is in line with the government’s plan to commercialise NavIC user receivers to promote an indigenous positioning technology.
As per the proposal, the pre-bid meetings will be held on December 14 and the last date for submission of the bid is January 11. “The bidder/s should design, manufacture, supply and maintain awarded quantities of Integrated NavIC and GPS receivers; and ensure deployment of Integrated NavIC and GPS receivers. The total awarded quantity is 10 Lakh. MeitY reserves the right to place parallel contracts on two or more vendors/bidders based on the pricing of the lowest technically compliant offer, the document said.
“Integrated NavIC and GPS receiver chips will improve overall signal availability and position accuracy in urban areas and will also support additional messaging facilities, unlike GPS-only receiver chips. Also, the NavIC system is totally under Indian control, which is a major requirement for a sovereign country,” the document said. NavIC, also known as Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, is country’s navigation satellite built to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1,500 kilometres from its boundary.
