It is a collaborative infrastructure initiative to establish a new international subsea gateway in Visakhapatnam (Vizag) anchored by five-year $15 billion AI infrastructure investment.
Key Highlights
- Connecting India’s East Coast: A direct fibre-optic path between Vizag and Chennai on India’s east coast to South Africa, connecting American East coast around Africa to Vizag.
- Additionally a direct path between Vizag and Singapore, offering a south pacific route connecting American West Coast through Australia to Vizag.
- Connecting India’s West Coast: Through a direct fibre-optic path between Mumbai and Western Australia.
- It complements Blue, Raman, and Sol subsea cables, which together form a data corridor from American east coast through Red Sea to Mumbai.
- Significance: Establish Vizag as a major International subsea gateway; turning maritime merchant shipping routes between “New World” and India into digital trade routes; etc.
About Undersea/Submarine Communications Cables
- Meaning: Fibre-optic cables laid on ocean floor to transmit data between continents, serving as a backbone of global internet.
- Significance: More than 95% of data goes through these; capable of transmitting multiple terabits of data per second.
- Technical Features: Contains multiple optical fibres (thin strands of glass/plastic); Use light signals for minimal loss; protective steel armour, waterproof insulation and repeaters (signal amplifiers), etc.
- Vulnerabilities: Accidental damage due to fishing trawlers and ship anchors, sabotage & geopolitical risks, E.g. attacks on Red Sea sub-sea cables (2024); etc.
- Indian Initiatives: Submarine optical fibre cables between Chennai and Andaman & Nicobar and Kochi and Lakshadweep; etc.
