AGARTALA, March 23 (TIWN): Decks have been cleared for Agartala to become the third internet gateway of the country after Mumbai and Chennai, with signal tests from the submarine cable of Cox Bazar in Bangladesh giving expected results. The work for internet connection through Bangladesh was kicked off in July last year in presence of Union Telecommunication minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. The ministry of Telecommunication has been prioritizing the project to strengthen telecom network in the Northeast and Eastern India to bring investments in information technology. Moreover, the Digital India initiative of the present government has also increased the pressure on existing international gateways in Chennai and Mumbai, which the Tripura gateway is expected to relieve to a large extent. Dream come true for Internet users across the northeastern region, high-speed Internet connectivity to be provided by Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company (BSCC) from Cox's Bazar port will be operationalised simultaneously from Delhi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka and Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar through video conferencing at 10.30am .Once the line is activated, Agartala is set to emerge as the third Internet gateway in the country after Mumbai and Chennai and the sixth city to have submarine cable connectivity.The total cost of cable-laying is Rs 19.1 crore.From zero point in the Akhaura checkpost, BSNL has extended the underground OFC cable up to their main technical office in the North Gate area of Agartala.

"The operationalisation of the connection will help the entire Northeast through high-speed Internet. The BSNL here has 12,000 broadband but private players such as Airtel, Vodafone, and Aircel have many more including mobile 3G Net connectivity. Everyone will benefit because BSNL will provide the basic platform," senior engineer of BSNL, Agartala, K. Chakraborty said.

He added that the BSCC had already laid underground optical fibre cable (OFC) from Cox's Bazar landing station to the zero point in the Akhaura checkpost, 2km west of Agartala, covering a distance of more than 351km.

 He added that during Modi's visit to Bangladesh, a team of BSNL officials accompanying the Prime Minister had raised the issue of Internet connectivity through the BSCC's submarine cable.

"The entire Northeast will be benefitted  because so far we have been receiving bandwidth from the international gateway in Chennai across several states. This often led to technical difficulties in different states and as a result Internet connectivity remains cutoff frequently. But from now on, BSCC will give us 10 GB that can be increased up to a maximum of 40 GB," said K. Chakraborty.

He said BSNL engineers from different states of the Northeast as well as from Delhi had arrived here to install sophisticated machinery as well as ensure proper receipt of the service the process had been completed smoothly.

"The BSNL general manager, J. Jaykumar, has already held several review meetings to monitor the progress before launching of the actual service and the authorities are satisfied," Chakraborty said.

He added that Tripura chief minister Sarkar would formally inaugurate the service by pressing the button of a specially installed machine in the state secretariat tomorrow morning. Simultaneously, Hasina and Modi will inaugurate the service.

Expressing satisfaction over the completion of cable-laying and other technical work, Tripura industries minister Tapan Chakraborty said the opening of the service would benefit the entire Northeast from the Tripura gateway and usher in a new era of cooperation and friendship with Bangladesh.