Kochi : Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has completed its South Africa Far East (SAFE) optic fibre cable landing operations here. The project, a joint venture of 42 companies including VSNL from 35 countries, has only Kochi as the landing point in the sub-continent for its submarine cable system.The $600-million project, for which India has contributed $50 million, has 12 landing points along its 28,000-km route from Cape Town to Penang in Malaysia.The cable ship, a flat-bottom, submarine-cable-laying vessel, which arrived in Kochi in the middle of this month has completed operations of laying the cable 9 km deep into the sea from Cherai beach, off Kochi. The other end is to be connected to the main cable coming from Mauritius and heading for Penang.
VSNL senior general manager AS Menon said the vessel had completed its operations. The linking of the Kochi cable to the main cable would be completed sometime by May and the final commissioning would be done by the year-end.
Work is also on for the installation of the terminal equipment at the international gateway at Kakkanad near here. The Rs 250-crore gateway was opened in 1998.
The cable system would be in two segments. The first would be a 15,000-km link between South Africa and Europe with 10 landing points. It will have a capacity of 7.3 million simultaneous phone calls, 1.5 million high-speed 64 K channels and 12,000 8 MB digital video channels. The second segment would be a 13,800-km line from South Africa to Malaysia with landings at Kochi and Mauritius.
Reliance OFC project begins today
Reliance will begin its optical fibre cable operations in Kochi from Wednesday while the Bharati-Asianet combine would initiate the same from March 2.
Formalities for the cable-laying operations have been completed, including the bank guarantee and the route map. Reliance through its Kerala Telecommunications Network, will lay its cable along the National Highway from Walayar in Palakkad and Bharati-Asianet will lay the cable along the State highways from Palakkad. While the Reliance company will lay around 500 kms, the Bharati-Asianet will lay 350 kms in the first phase. Other majors to join the 2,240-crore optical fibre cable laying project include BPL Broadband and Escotel.
The operations are part of the deal finalised during the IT Kerala 2000 exposition last year. Besides the laying of the cable, there will be an international satellite gateway and Net data centres.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
