V.V. Singh, Reliance Infocomm's CEO for the two states, said: "We are a professionally-run company and today's launching of Phase II of the expansion in Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal will be followed by a similar launch in several other states."

Asked at a press conference here if the feud in the Ambani family would affect Reliance Infocomm's expansion plans, he said: "There is no reason why anything should come in our way in any manner.

"We are going ahead with our expansion plans as per schedule."

Singh felt the dispute between Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani and his brother Anil "need not be discussed, as (it) will automatically pass off with the passage of time".

He said: "Reliance Infocomm has an outlay of Rs.250 billion ($5.6 billion) and by the end of the current financial year, we will cover as many as 5,100 locations across the country.

"We will soon have the biggest telecom network in the country."

According to Singh, "The company has already laid some 80,000 km of optical fibre cable which would go up to 120,000 km by March 2005."

Besides remote pilgrimage centres like Badrinath and Kedarnath, the Reliance Infocomm network will now cover 23 national highways, 51 state highways and 13 railway routes across Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal.

These include inhospitable and high altitude terrain up to Dharchula near the Indo-Tibet border. "In all, we will now be covering some 911 towns in these two neighbouring states," Singh said.

--Indo-Asian News Service