Kochi is the SAFE project's only landing point in the subcontinent. The project is a joint venture operation of 42 telecom companies of 35 countries, including India's Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL).

SAFE, which has 12 landing points on its 28,800-km route from Cape Town in South Africa to Penang in Malaysia, is expected to give South India access to the most modern digital cable technology for providing infrastructure for IT and telecom services. The "landing" of the cable in Kochi got underway with the arrival at Cherai beach of Jan Steen, a flat-bottom submarine cable-laying vessel. A team of engineers and a few divers brought the two pair fiber cable to the beach manhole on the Cherai.

Now that the beach end of the cable is in place, the ship would lay the cable nine kilometers deep in the sea. The other end of the cable, which is now anchored at the sea floor, would be connected to the main cable coming from Mauritius in the western sector and heading for Penang in the eastern sector. According to A.S. Menon, senior general manager of VSNL, the link up of the Kochi cable to the main cable is expected to finish by May and the SAFE project is likely to be commissioned by the end of the year. IANS