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India Connects Strategically-located Lakshadweep to Mainland Through Submarine Cable

11:58, 3 January 2024

Dhairya Maheshwari

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Lakshadweep, the smallest Union Territory (UT) of India, comprises 36 islands located nearly 220 kilometres from the mainland in the Arabian Sea. Only 10 of the islands are inhabited.

Sputnik

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inaugurated the Kochi-Lakshadweep Islands Submarine Optical Fiber Connection (KLI – SOFC) project, a telecom connectivity venture which would connect the Arabian Sea archipelago to the Indian mainland.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said that the submarine cable would increase the internet speed on the islands by more than 100 times to 1.7 Gigabits per second (Gbps).

The subsea project was announced by PM Modi during his Independence Day speech in New Delhi in August 2020.

The project has been hailed as a “transformative move” by the Indian government as it would be for the first time that the island chain off India’s western coast would be connected through a subsea cable.

“The dedicated submarine OFC will ensure a paradigm shift in communication infrastructure in the Lakshadweep islands, enabling faster and more reliable internet services, telemedicine, e-governance, educational initiatives, digital banking, digital currency usage and digital literacy,” the PM stated.

Gov’t Committed to Development of Lakshadweep: PM

Besides launching the subsea cables, the Indian Prime Minister also inaugurated drinking water and solar power projects on the island chain.

The total cost of the projects inaugurated by Modi was around $138 million.

The official statement noted that the Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD) plant at Kadmat would produce 150,000 litres of clean drinking water per day and help resolve the challenge of potable water on the coral islands.

The solar power project inaugurated by Modi at Kavaratti is the first-ever battery-backed project on the island.

Soon after landing at Lakshadweep’s Agatti Airport on Tuesday, Modi addressed a public meeting in which he reassured the locals that the government was committed to the development of the strategically-located archipelago, which is near the international shipping lines.

Modi also chaired a review meeting on the developmental progress on the islands on Tuesday evening.

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