BSNL, MTNL to lay submarine cable to Arab: Maran

Chennai, Nov 28: Public Sector BSNL and MTNL will lay submarine cables connecting the United States through the Arab world.

The project would form part of the Asia-America Gateway to connect the United States through the Panama Canal, Union Minister for IT and Communications Dayanidhi Maran announced today.

He was replying to questions from newspersons after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with his Egyptian counterpart Dr Tarek Kamel for bilateral cooperation in ICT sector.

Mr Maran said work on preparing a Detailed Project Report was on and laying of cables would commence in December next year.

The entire project would be completed in 18 to 20 months, he added.

The cost of the project, connecting Kolkata and Chennai and Mumbai and Kochi to Arab World was yet to finalised, he said and added there was also a proposal to connect Andamans by this project.

Meanwhile, Dr Tarek Kamel said Egypt would render full cooperation for the project.

UNI