PM Modi inaugurates first ever optical fibre cable project for Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday inaugurated the first ever undersea optical fibre cable project for Andaman and Nicobar Islands which will provide high speed broadband connections in the union territory at par with services in the mainland.

The prime minister laid the foundation for 2,312-kilometer Chennai - Andaman and Nicobar Islands (CANI) connecting submarine optical fibre cable project on December 30, 2018.

"This optical fibre cable project is a gift for the people of Andaman before the Independence Day. This is a symbol of our commitment towards ease of living. Be it online classes, tourism, banking, shopping, or telemedicine, thousands of families in Andaman and Nicobar will now get access," PM Modi said after inaugurating the project.

"From Chennai to Port Blair, Port Blair to Little Andaman and Port Blair to Swaraj Dweep, this service has started in large part of Andaman Nicobar from today."

The prime minister said that tourists will also reap huge benefits from this facility as better net connectivity is the first priority of any tourist destination. "The problem of mobile and Internet connectivity has now been resolved. Apart from this, physical connectivity through road, air, and water is also being strengthened."

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

The submarine OFC link will deliver a bandwidth of 2x200 Gigabits per second between Chennai and Port Blair, and 2x100 Gbps between Port Blair and other islands.

According to official data, internet with speed of 400 gigabyte (Gb) per second will be provided at Port Blair and for other islands it will be 200 Gb per second.

Undersea cable linking Andaman Islands with Chennai was laid before time, Modi said while inaugurating the cable link.
Work of laying undersea cable has been executed by BSNL in a record time of less than 24 months.

This project will give a boost to 4G mobile services and digital services like tele-education, tele-health, e-governance services and tourism on the islands.

(with inputs from agencies)