Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday awarded a multi-crore horizontal connectivity contract to enterprise data services provider Tulip Telecom.

Tulip Telecom will provide end-to-end connectivity through network infrastructure to two thousand government offices in Tamil Nadu over the next two years.

Under this e-Governance initiative, the all the connected government offices will get uninterrupted data, Internet, voice, video conferencing as well as video streaming services. The total value of the e-Governance project is more than Rs 74 crore.

Rajesh Duggal, president (government business) at Tulip Telecom said the award of the project to their company showed the government's faith in the company’s abilities.

Speaking about the project, Duggal said, “Such large projects are an indication of government's faith in our abilities and act as an enabler in realising our vision of becoming the largest data services provider globally.”

But, the positive development could not cheer investors. Stock in Tulip Telecom shed Rs 2.4, or 4.91 per cent, to close at Rs 46.50 a share on Wednesday.

Investors are concerned over Tulip’s future as the company has so far failed to improve its debt equity ratio, even after the recent sale of its 13 per cent stake in Qualcomm's Indian mobile broadband business. The company is reportedly pursuing discussions with strategic investors to divest 49 per cent equity in its Bangalore-based wholly-owned division Tulip Data Centre.