Agartala, March 22: Fulfilling the long-cherished dreams of Internet users across the northeastern region, high-speed Internet connectivity to be provided by Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company (BSCC) from Cox's Bazar port will be operationalised simultaneously from Delhi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka and Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar through video conferencing at 10.30am tomorrow.
Once the line is activated, Agartala is set to emerge as the third Internet gateway in the country after Mumbai and Chennai and the sixth city to have submarine cable connectivity.
"The operationalisation of the connection will help the entire Northeast through high-speed Internet. The BSNL here has 12,000 broadband but private players such as Airtel, Vodafone, and Aircel have many more including mobile 3G Net connectivity. Everyone will benefit because BSNL will provide the basic platform," senior engineer of BSNL, Agartala, K. Chakraborty said.
He added that the BSCC had already laid underground optical fibre cable (OFC) from Cox's Bazar landing station to the zero point in the Akhaura checkpost, 2km west of Agartala, covering a distance of more than 351km.
From zero point in the Akhaura checkpost, BSNL has extended the underground OFC cable up to their main technical office in the North Gate area of Agartala. "The total cost of cable-laying is Rs 19.1 crore," said Chakraborty.
He added that during Modi's visit to Bangladesh, a team of BSNL officials accompanying the Prime Minister had raised the issue of Internet connectivity through the BSCC's submarine cable.
The Bangladesh side had agreed at once and an agreement was signed on June 6 to the effect that BSNL would pay an annual lease revenue of Rs 7.2 crore for the operational service.
Union communication minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had laid the foundation stone of the project on July 11 last year during a programme here.
"This will be a great blessing for the entire Northeast because so far we have been receiving bandwidth from the international gateway in Chennai across several states. This often led to technical hitches in different states and Internet would falter. But from now on, BSCC will give us 10 GB that can be increased up to a maximum of 40 GB," said K. Chakraborty.
He said BSNL engineers from different states of the Northeast as well as from Delhi had arrived here to install sophisticated machinery as well as ensure proper receipt of the service the process had been completed smoothly.
"The BSNL general manager, J. Jaykumar, has already held several review meetings to monitor the progress before launching of the actual service and the authorities are satisfied," Chakraborty said.
He added that Tripura chief minister Sarkar would formally inaugurate the service by pressing the button of a specially installed machine in the state secretariat tomorrow morning. Simultaneously, Hasina and Modi will inaugurate the service.
Expressing satisfaction over the completion of cable-laying and other technical work, Tripura industries minister Tapan Chakraborty said the opening of the service would benefit the entire Northeast from the Tripura gateway and usher in a new era of cooperation and friendship with Bangladesh.
