PM Narendra Modi to inaugurate 2300-km undersea cable project to boost connectivity to Andaman & Nicobar Islands on August 10

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the 2300-km undersea Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) project connecting Chennai and Port Blair on Monday (August 10, 2020). The PM will launch and dedicate to the nation the project which will boost connectivity to Andaman & Nicobar through video conferencing.

The submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) will also connect Port Blair to Swaraj Dweep (Havelock), Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Kamorta, Great Nicobar, Long Island, and Rangat. 

This project will enable the delivery of faster and more reliable mobile and landline telecom services to Andaman & Nicobar Islands, at par with other parts of India. 

The Prime Minister had laid the foundation stone of this project on December 30, 2018, at Port Blair.

About 2300 Kms of Submarine OFC cable has been laid at a cost of about Rs 1224 Crore, and the project has been completed in time.

This cable will boost the digital connectivity of the islands with the mainland and increase internet connection to nearly three to four times the existing capacity. After this project, it will get a data speed of 400 gigabytes (GB) per second.

Once inaugurated, the submarine OFC link will deliver bandwidth of 2 x 200 Gigabits per second (Gbps) between Chennai and Port Blair, and 2 x 100 Gbps between Port Blair and the other islands. 

The project is funded by the Government of India through the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) under the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications. 

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) executed this project while Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) is the Technical Consultants. 

After the lunch of this project, the internet bills in Andaman and Nicobar will also come down substantially. At present, the residents of the islands pay exorbitant prices for an internet connection.