Agartala to become India’s third internet gateway

Kolkata: Agartala, the capital of the northeastern state of Tripura, is to become India’s third internet gateway, after Mumbai and Chennai.

The announcement comes as Bangladesh’s submarine cable operator, Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL), has already connected 10GBPS bandwidth with BSNL cable at the Akhaura integrated check post at the Indo-Bangladesh international border.

“With signal tests from the submarine cable of Cox Bazar in Bangladesh giving expected results, the system is ready and will be launched shortly,” said Rabi Chanda, general manager of state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) Tripura circle.

Officials say all technical preparations have been completed and they are awaiting green signals of both governments to formally launch the service.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Shaikh Hasina are expected to be present during the launch in the second week of January.

“This project will resolve telecom and internet connectivity issue to a great extent in the entire North Eastern states. At present we provide connectivity from Chennai via Kolkata to North East. This will be now a short route cable between Cox Bazar cables landing station in Bangladesh to Agartala through Akhaura,” India’s Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told Gulf News.

Built at a cost of Rs191 million (Dh10.44 million) with an annual operational expenditure is around Rs72 million, the project is expected to enhance digital footprint to the nooks and corners of the region thereby enabling the government delivery mechanism to provide to the needy.

The project also will enable for IT related investments into the area.

“Our boys and girls only work in call-centres centres in Gurgaon, Bengaluru and Pune. After implementation of this project, many companies can open officers here which will certainly give a boost to employment in the region,” said Tom Maclian, an entrepreneur who runs a computer education institute in Shillong, capital of Meghalaya.

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