North East to get net bandwidth connectivity via Bangladesh

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will lay foundation stone for a project in Agartala tomorrow that aims to strengthen telecom services in the North Eastern states.
Under the project, an international gateway for broadband connectivity will be set up at Agartala in which connectivity will be provided through Bangladesh under an agreement between state-run BSNL and Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company limited.
"This project will resolve telecom connectivity issue to a great extent in 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 cable landing station in Bangladesh to Aagartala through Akhaura," Prasad told reporters here.

The cost of the project is Rs 19.1 crore and annual operational expenditure is around Rs 7.2 crore.
"We will get bandwidth of 10 Gbps which can be extended up to 40 Gbps," the minister added.
The project is likely to be commissioned by January 2016.