BSNL, MTNL to set up Rs 2000 cr undersea cable

State-run telecom companies BSNL and MTNL will jointly invest Rs 1,800-2,000 crore for laying an undersea cable between India and Singapore.

The two companies have hired a consultant to prepare a blueprint for the project and a Rs 2,000 crore tender is likely to be floated by March next year, a senior BSNL official said.

The submarine cable system would connect south east Asia and west Asia and eventually the US and Europe. BSNL's India-Sri Lanka cable is also ready to be officially launched.

The cable would be laid by Millennium Telecom, a subsidiary of MTNL, in which BSNL has 49 per cent stake for this project.

At present, submarine cable scenario is not very encouraging from the country's point of view as there are only four Indian bandwidth providers - VSNL, Bharti, Reliance and BSNL, while there are 33 in London, 32 in the US, 32 in Germany, 24 in France and 14 in South Korea.

Officials of both the PSUs say preliminary indications were that the project would be profitable.

Bharti Infotel and Videsh Sanchar Nigam already have India-Singapore link through four cable systems in south east Asia, west Asia, western Europe and Tata India Singapore Cable Systems.

Reliance's Falcon cable system connects India with ten nations in west Asia and Africa.

Indian operators now control more than a third of the global undersea cable systems in the world. Tata-managed VSNL had acquired two major cable systems "� Tyco and Teleglobe, taking it to the big league of bandwidth owners.