North eastern states of India will be soon get high-speed uninterrupted Internet connectivity through an international gateway from Bangladesh connecting north eastern region via Cox Bazar.
Communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will lay the foundation stone on Saturday in Agartala for the installing the cable from Indian side that will connect with the international gateway—a cable connection to transfer voice and data and connect internet services.
The telecom connectivity in North East is frequently disturbed due to fragile telecom infrastructure. An agreement between Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd was signed during the Indo-Bangladesh summit held last month. The project is likely to be commissioned by January 2016 at an estimated cost of Rs 19.1 crore and an annual operational cost of Rs 7.2 crore, which will be funded by department of telecommunications in India.
Prasad reiterated that this effort is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India mission.
During the Digital India Week that started on July 1, a number of services relating to health, education, public distribution system, police, agriculture, trade and employment etc. were launched by various state governments. “It is not what was achieved in a week, but the sensitisation of building a digital India has been achieved,” Prasad had said.