Saudi-India-Nepal-Bhutan to buy bandwidth from Bangladesh

Saudi Arabia, seven states of India, Nepal and Bhutan have expressed eagerness to buy bandwidth from Bangladesh.

Bhutan and Tripura of India have already proposed officially while Saudi Arabia and Nepal expressed their eagerness in this regard. 

Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar said this at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Tuesday (December 1). Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has expressed her excitement over this.

The ECNEC approved the project “Installation of the 3rd submarine cable to expand Bangladesh’s international telecommunications system”. ECNEC Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presided over the meeting. The Prime Minister attended the meeting through video conference from her official residence ‘Gonobhabon’.

General Economics Division (GED) member of the Planning Commission Prof Dr Shamsul Alam briefed reporters after the meeting.

Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) under the Ministry of Post, Telecommunications and ICT will implement the project by June 2024.

He informed that the SEA-ME-WE-6 submarine cable from Singapore to France will extend to the Mediterranean Sea through the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Red Sea.

The cable will have core landing stations in Singapore, India, Djibouti, Egypt and France. The Bangladesh branch will stretch to the cable landing station at Cox’s Bazar through the Bay of Bengal. The project will cost 693 crore 16 lakh and 71 thousand taka.