A telecom project to connect Andman & Nicobar islands with Chennai through undersea optical fibre cable is expected to get final approval by December this year, Parliament was informed today.
"Government has decided to lay submarine optical fibre cable from Chennai to Port Blair...The project is expected to be approved by the competent authority by December 2015," Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
Detailed project report based on desktop survey has been prepared by Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd.
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The project also propose to connect Lakshadweep islands with optical fibre network. It was cleared by inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission in November 2014.
"While accepting the need to provide robust and reliable telecom connectivity to Lakshadweep islands, Telecom Commission... Has accorded an 'in principle' approval to undertake a cost benefit analysis and feasibility study for laying submarine OFC in Lakshadweep along with validation of the estimated cost before proceeding ahead," Prasad said.
Telecom regulator TRAI has recommended an initial plan costing about Rs 2,400 crore to connect Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep which at present rely on connectivity through satellites.
In Andaman and Nicobar Island (ANI) 29 out of 576 islands are inhabited and 90 per cent of the population lives in three islands - North, Middle and South Andaman Islands alone. In Lakshadweep, 11 out of 36 are inhabited and 10 of the inhabited islands have population above 100.
For Andaman & Nicobar Islands, the regulator has suggested connecting 22 islands, which included 18 islands with population of above 100 and four islands which have presence of police, forest camps and tourists.
For Lakshadweep, the regulator has factored connectivity at 10 inhabited villages.
The Islands is a part of the West Bengal service area and Lakshadweep is a part of the Kerala circle.
In Andaman & Nicobar Islands, four telecom operators - BSNL, Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance - have launched services. In Lakshadweep, only BSNL and Airtel (partly) have launched services.
While in the rest of West Bengal and Kerala service areas there are eight telecom operators.
