On November 13, 2020, A Tripartite Agreement was signed between Andaman & Nicobar Administration (A & N), Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd) for operation and management of Chennai-Andaman & Nicobar Islands Submarine Cable (CANI-SMC) Project.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the INR 1224 Crore worth Submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connecting Chennai and Port Blair in August, 2020.
Components of the Agreement:
i.The agreement has been signed to ensure uninterrupted quality of service with Service Levels up to 99.99%.
ii.It has provisions for continued Warranty support by NEC Infrastructure Private Ltd., for Equipment and South East Asia and Indian Ocean Cable Maintenance Agreement (SEAIOCMA) for wet plant (submarine part) for five years.
Chennai-Andaman & Nicobar Islands Submarine Cable (CANI-SMC) Project:
i.CANI-SMC Project was started to provide faster & reliable delivery of mobile and landline telecom services to A & N Islands at par with other parts of India.
ii.The undersea cable will connect seven islands of A & N Islands including Port Blair, Swaraj Dweep (Havlock), Long Island, Rangat, Little Andaman, Kamorta, Car Nicobar and Greater Nicobar.
iii.The project is funded by the Government of India through the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) under the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communication, implemented by BSNL and TCIL was the technical consultant.
Recent Related News:
i.On August 10, 2020, As Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connecting CANI, Airtel became the first mobile operator to launch ‘Ultra-Fast 4G’ services in the union territory (UT) of A&NI.
About Andaman & Nicobar (A & N):
Lieutenant Governor – Admiral D K Joshi
Capital – Port Blair
Volcano – Barren Island Volcano (India’s only active volcano)
