Following announcements by Google, Meta, and telecom operators to invest in submarine fiber cables in the country, the focus is now on establishing repair and maintenance infrastructure along the Indian coastline, sources said. This step aims to address cable cuts more effectively and reduce associated costs.
The companies, however, are looking at building the infrastructure with support from the government as setting up cable depots, Indian submarine cable repair vessels, trained crew, and skilled engineers, will entail huge costs.
Based on the call from the big tech companies and recommendations by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the department of telecommunications (DoT) is currently looking at a framework with regard to repair and maintenance of undersea cables in India. Officials said state-owned Telecommunications Consultants India (TCIL) is evaluating a proposal keeping in view the cost of setting up cable depots, ships, and other infrastructure costs.
The same assumes significance as undersea cables are crucial for global connectivity, serving as the backbone of the Internet and global telecommunications. India is currently dependent on marine service providers from Singapore and Dubai, for any repairs to subsea cable along its coastline. This means that repair vessels come all the way from their base depots in Singapore and Dubai to India which requires 10-12 additional days (both way) transit time thereby increasing cost of operations.
Besides, there are additional permits, which are required by foreign crew members to come to India for repairs, which adds to repair time.
As per industry estimates, each repair costs approximately around Rs 20 crore and usually there are 4-5 such repairs in a year. Infact, the government’s Chennai to Andaman & Nicobar Islands (CANI) subsea project and Kochi-Lakshadweep Islands Submarine Optical Fiber Connection, which are funded by the universal service obligation fund (USOF) require a fixed maintenance cost of Rs 7 crore per year and Rs 14 crore for every cable cut.
Having such specialised ships in India will be key to bringing down repair and maintenance costs.
“Any repair and maintenance infrastructure for subsea cables is expected to be in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode owing to huge upfront costs,” an official said, adding that the upfront cost as per initial estimates would be around Rs 2,500-3,000 crore and on top of that there would be cost related to labour, training, and cable inventory.
As of now, there are 18 submarine cables (SMCs) that land in India in cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin, Tuticorin, and Trivandrum. Five more such projects are in works by private companies such as Google, Meta, Airtel, and Jio.
Google, along with its partners, is currently working on the Blue-Raman subsea cable project in Mumbai, which will link West Asia, Southern Europe and Asia. Meta along with Airtel is working on 2Africa Pearls subsea project, whereas Jio along with other global telecom operators is building India-Asia-Express and India-Europe-Express projects.
