wiredInUSA September 2020

Taking fiber to Indian islands

Underground project

image courtesy of National Grid Indian prime minister Narendra Modi Taihan Electric Wire Co Ltd has signed

a contract with the UK’s National Grid for the supply of underground cables and accessories for the London Power Tunnels 2 (LPT2) project. The contract is the largest power grid project awarded to a Korean cable manufacture in the UK, and is also the largest project awarded to Taihan since it entered the European market. The LPT projects are at the core of National Grid’s efforts to secure London’s electricity supply. A tunnel, stretching from Wimbledon, in south-west London, to Crayford in south- east London, will be installed with a 32.5km, 400kV high voltage cable system. As well as providing the 400kV cables, Taihan will design, engineer and oversee the cable system inside the tunnel. The project involved a bidding process that stretched over a year, and concluded in the selection of Taihan as exclusive cable supplier.

A 2,313km undersea cable to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands archipelago has been launched by the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi. The Indian state-owned telecommunications company BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd) completed the deployment at a cost of $163.37 million in just two years. The project was financed by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) with Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) serving as technical consultant. As detailed in a government press release, the cable connects Chennai, on India’s mainland, to Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It will deliver 400Gbit/s speed in Port Blair and 200Gbit/s on nearby islands. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands lie in the Bay of Bengal, one of the country’s most remote regions, where the high speed connectivity is expected to help the region take advantage of several government initiatives, and boost tourism. Port Blair is now connected to the islands of Swaraj Dweep (Havelock), Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Kamorta, Great Nicobar, Long Island and Rangat.

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wiredInUSA September 2020