AGARTALA, March 14 (TIWN): Economy of Tripura can get a boost if the service of the internet bandwidth is truly utilized for the development of the state. It is to be mentioned here that Tripura and other North-Eastern states have a tremendous scope to boost its economy, exploit its resources and attract investment, capitalizing the proximity with neighbouring countries specially Bangladesh. Tripura and other north-eastern states have resources and potentialities, but there must be a serious marketing about their scopes and prospects across the country and abroad to turn the mission into reality and government have to take active role in making the proper utilisation. The state would now be the information technology hub in north-east India and also play a vital role in eastern India as far as internet connectivity is concerned. It is a golden opportunity for the IT Industry and the economic roadmap of Tripura as the Indo-Bangladesh surplus undersea internet bandwidth lease agreement was signed during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka during June 6-7 in the presence of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The commissioning of Agartala as third internet gateway, after Chennai and Mumbai, will boost the economy of the state and can bring a revolution, if utilised in true manner.

Tripura will be gateway for reliable and super-fast Internet facility as Bangladesh government has agreed to allow India to use unspent bandwidth in the neighbouring country’s Cox Bazar from March 23.

It is to be mentioned here that the agreement for the internet bandwidth was initially signed for the tenure of four years. According to the agreement, India will gain 10 Gbps (gigabits per second) bandwidth in the first year and by the subsequent year it will go up to 40 Gbps per second.

India-Bangladesh surplus under-sea internet bandwidth (10 Gbps) sale agreement was signed on June 2015 during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit at Dhaka in presence of Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina.

As per the agreement, Bangladesh government would allow the BSNL to use 10 GB Internet connectivity which could bring a revolution not only in the northeast but also some mainland states. The BSNL will have to pay Rs 7.2 crore annually to Bangladesh for using submarine cable laid at Cox Bazar.

According to the reports, Bangladesh has agreed to sell the unused submarine Internet bandwidth to the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) for $ 1.2 million (Rs 7.7 crores) a year. However, question arises will the state government make the true utilisation on the internet bandwidth service for the development of the state.