Chennai – Andaman & Nicobar Islands Submarine Cable Inaugurated
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connecting Chennai and Port Blair, the capital city of Andaman and Nicobar Islands through video conferencing on 10th August, 2020.
The main purpose of laying these submarine cables is to provide high-speed Internet connectivity to the Andaman islands.
OFC link will provide reliable and high-speed telecommunications and broadband facilities and enhance mobile and land-line telecommunication services in Andaman & Nicobar Islands. This high-speed connectivity is also expected to be a boost for tourism and employment opportunities.
About Chennai-Andamans Optical Submarine Cable System
Total length of cable laid is 2,300 Km connecting Chennai to Port Blair and further connecting Swaraj Dweep (Havelock island), Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Kamorta, Great Nicobar, Long Island and Rangat. Total cost of this on-time project was Rs. 1,224 Cr.
Earlier the islands were connected to the mainland through satellite link with combined availability of only 3.2 Gigabits per second (Gbps).
OFC link will deliver bandwidth of 400 Gigabits per second (Gbps) between Chennai & Port Blair, and 200 Gbps between Port Blair and the other seven islands.
Chennai-Adaman Submarine Cable Project: Important Milestones and Partners
On 30th December 2018, Shri Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for this project at Port Blair. Then on 9th January 2020, submarine cable laying work was inaugurated by Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Law and Justice, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology in Chennai.
Read more about the project: Andaman and Nicobar Submarine Cable Project Inaugurated
The Submarine Cables project was funded by Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) under the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications.
The project implementation agency was Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) was the technical consultant.
NEC Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. (NECTI) did the designing, engineering, supply, installation, testing and implementation of optical submarine cable system. Manufacturing of optical submarine cables was done by NEC Corporation (a Japanese multinational and parent company of NECTI) which also provided technical assistance during implementation work.