Broadband India Forum (BIF) has urged the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to decongest the Versova landing station in Mumbai, where 15 out of 17 international cables are currently concentrated within a 6 km stretch. The industry flagged this clustering as a significant vulnerability, raising concerns over the risk of simultaneous cuts and service disruptions.
In its recommendations, BIF called for subsea cables to be classified as critical telecom infrastructure and proposed that India establish a dedicated indigenous vessel for prompt cable repairs. It also stressed the need for a single-window clearance system to streamline approvals for deployment, repair, and maintenance of subsea cables.
The forum suggested the development of “cable corridors” in high-density regions like Mumbai and Chennai, designated zones that are pre-approved for subsea cable laying, to ease procedural bottlenecks.
Further, BIF recommended identifying and incentivising new cable landing station (CLS) sites along India’s extensive coastline to distribute cable landings more evenly. Addressing the cost disparity between various landing sites was also highlighted as a priority.
To enhance connectivity between CLS and data centres, the forum advised the DoT to collaborate with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and other agencies to lease utility fibre at scale.
