Bangladesh approves Tk 7bn submarine cable project

The government has approved a Tk 7 billion project to connect Bangladesh to the third submarine cable to improve internet services.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 1 Dec 2020, 11:05 AM
Updated : 1 Dec 2020, 11:05 AM

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved the proposal at a meeting in Dhaka on Tuesday. 

The project described as a timely initiative by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will be implemented by Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd.

It will create an opportunity to earn foreign currency by exporting bandwidth after its implementation, Shamsul Alam, senior secretary of the Planning Commission, said at a media briefing.

The government will provide Tk 3 billion for the project, with the rest of the fund coming from BSCCL.

The project work that started in October this year is expected to be complete by 2024.

Bangladesh will be connected with the undersea cable SEA-ME-WE 6 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe), an optical fibre submarine communications cable system. Bangladesh was connected with its first undersea cable, SEA-ME-WE 4, in 2005 and with the second, SEA-ME-WE 5, in 2017.

Under the new project, a 13,275 km core submarine cable and 1,850 km branch submarine cable will be installed.