MUMBAI, December 5, 2005 - Cisco, the global leader in networking for the Internet, today announced that it has been selected as the infrastructure provider for Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL's) campus wide connectivity project in Trichy. BHEL has invested nearly Rs.5 crores in the project, encompassing the company's 2908 acre campus.

BHEL Trichy, a major manufacturing unit of the BHEL family, is an ISO9001, 14001 and OHASAS 18001 company, ranks as one of the foremost manufacturing facilities within the Indian power plant equipment market. The solution provided by Cisco is a comprehensive integrated network based on a 10Gig backbone. It includes five core switches, seven distribution switches and a total of 152 Edge Switches deployed throughout the campus. Backed by a strong service support and consultancy team from Cisco, this project is particularly significant as it is the single largest switching order within the manufacturing vertical in the Asia Pacific region.

Commenting on the win, Jangoo Dalal, Sr. VP -Enterprise, Cisco, India& SAARC said "BHEL is yet another feather in Cisco's cap. Not only was our team able to convince the customer of the benefits of implementing a Cisco solution but it was able to do this against stiff competition. BHEL has recognised both the technical superiority as well as the commitment from Cisco which we plan to do full justice to in the course of this deployment."

Commenting on the deployment, Mr. K.V.Seetharaman, Head/Informatics Centre, BHEL-Trichy said "The existing Network backbone in BHEL Trichy is on ATM (OC3) Technology and it was deployed in the late 90's. The network expanded in stages and products of different manufacturers have been deployed during the expansions. To keep in pace with the latest technology, BHEL is going in for 10 Gig backbone now."

He further added, "Various units of BHEL have deployed Cisco products, and as a corporate, BHEL has confidence in the products and services of Cisco. Our interactions with the Cisco team made us realize that investing in Cisco Infrastructure was prudent not only from the perspective of scalability and support but also from the strong services and consultancy point of view. Cisco has bagged the order against competitive bidding. Cisco also has a proven track record in projects of this sort and we believe that we have made the right choice."

About BHEL

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), established in 1953, is one of leading power generation equipment manufacturers in the world. BHEL has 14 manufacturing units, 13 Regional Operation Divisions and more than hundred "service-at-sites" facilities spread all over India. BHEL offers comprehensive service to its customers in Conventional and Non-Conventional Energy, Industry, Transportation, Telecommunication and Oil sectors. BHEL has also bagged export orders from 40 countries around the world.