New Delhi, Sept. 27: Vodafone India's merger with Idea Cellular is on track and will be completed within 2018, Vodafone India chief Sunil Sood said here today.

Sood, who was speaking on the sidelines of the India Mobile Congress in New Delhi, said the merger process took time as it went through various stages, including approvals from the CCI, Sebi, the NCLT and the telecom department.

"We are going ahead on schedule," he said.

Earlier this year, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular had agreed to merge their operations to create the country's largest telecom operator worth more than $23 billion with a 35 per cent market share.

The Vodafone-Idea merger will create India's largest telecom firm, ahead of Bharti Airtel. It could also throw a formidable challenge to new entrant Reliance Jio.

Bharti Airtel now leads the mobile telephone market in India with a 24 per cent of the subscriber pie. After the merger is complete, Vodafone, which already has an 18 per cent share of the subscriber base, will add 16 per cent from Idea.

The Vodafone-Idea merged firm will have an enterprise value of over Rs 160,000 crore. Vodafone will own 45.1 per cent stake in the merged entity, while the Aditya Birla group, which runs Idea, will own a 26 per cent stake. The remaining 28.9 per cent will be held by other shareholders.

In terms of sheer number of subscribers, India is the world's second largest telecom market after China but a scathing price war has slashed profitability ever since Reliance Jio entered the market last September.

Jio has focused on data and offered free voice calls too, forcing others to respond with similar schemes.

Earlier this year, Bharti Airtel had said it would buy out Telenor India in a deal that analysts saw as prompted by competition from Reliance Jio's disruptive pricing announcements.

The on-going consolidation is likely to leave four larger operators - Bharti Airtel-Telenor, Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio, Vodafone India-Idea Cellular, and a similar merger deal between Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications and Aircel Limited, said analysts.