India is exploring possibilities to improve telecom connectivity in its northeast region through alternate routing from Akhaura in Bangladesh to Agartala in Tripura.
The discussion came up at a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the chief ministers of the eight northeastern states. The meeting in New Delhi reviewed the progress of infrastructure projects in the region, said a press release issued by his office.
Official sources said India had submitted a proposal last year to import bandwidth from Bangladesh through Akhaura, but no development had taken place so far.
“We have telecom cooperation [between the two countries] and under that Bangladesh is connected with Indian terrestrial cable through Benapole and it is also possible to replicate the same features in Akhaura,” said an official of the telecom ministry.
Northeastern India could be a lucrative market for Bangladesh as it had unutilised bandwidth of about 160GB out of its total capacity of 200GB, he said.
He added that a joint telecom working group had been formed in 2003 but it had had its last meeting in 2008. The connectivity issue could be discussed in the forum.
Bangladesh’s bandwidth capacity will stand at 2,000GB when the second submarine cable’s operation is commissioned in the first half of the next year.
The official said Bhutan and Nepal were also interested in importing bandwidth from Bangladesh under a regional initiative and they were already pursuing the matter.
The meeting between Manmohan and the chief ministers also discussed electricity issues: that the northeastern region currently had a capacity of generating 4,080MW of electricity and another 6,810MW was under development, the Indian PMO press release said.
“Untapped hydro potential is 55,561MW and development of this potential would generate surplus power, meeting the energy needs of the nation and also generating resources for the region,” it added.