Strong reception

New Delhi, Dec. 29: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will invest Rs 84 crore to re-commission digital microwave link between Rameshwaram in India and Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka with the Sri Lanka Telecom investing Rs 36 crore in the project which is likely to cost more than Rs 120 crore.

There will not be a drop in the long distance calls between India and Sri Lanka with the new digital microwave system, which is expected to strengthen the communication links between two countries and provide a platform for improving the trade links.

“With the growth in the trade talks among the countries of South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc), the two governments were keen to a have similar alternative links for telecom to help uninterrupted and quality service. We will be exploring avenues to revive all the available and new telecommunications links in the region,” said a senior official in the department of telecommunications (DoT).

An earlier microwave link between India and Sri Lanka established on June 3, 1980 was shut down on August 1, 1997 due to unforeseen situations. “There are a few more communications links that can be revived. We are awaiting clearance from various government organisations,” said sources in DoT.

A memorandum of understanding between BSNL and Sri Lanka Telecom was signed on July 18 in New Delhi. Thereafter, an agreement was signed between the two companies in Colombo on October 3. Under this agreement, digital microwave link between Rameshwaram and Thalaimannar was required to be re-commissioned.

Today, BSNL chairman cum managing director Prithipal Singh and Shuei Anan, Sri Lanka Telecom CEO jointly re-commissioned the microwave link between BSNL and Sri Lanka Telecom.

The system will operate on 7GHz and provide bandwidth of 34 Mbps (480 circuits).

The system will provide frequency diversity as well as space diversity to provide sufficient protection from reflection problems due to water surface between Rameshwaram and Thalaimannar. These circuits will automatically be extended to Madurai in India and Colombo in Sri Lanka as Madurai is already connected with Rameshwaram and Thalaimannar with Colombo.