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Informist, Friday, Jun. 27, 2025

 

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--Gujarat official:Talking to RIL, 3 others for optic fibre landing stations
--CONTEXT: India currently has 14 sub-sea optic fibre cable landing stations
--Gujarat official:State may host more than one optic fibre landing station
--Gujarat official: Two firms want cable landing station in south Gujarat
--Gujarat official: RIL, 1 other co want cable landing station in Saurashtra
--Sources: RIL keen on housing sub-sea cable landing station in Jamnagar
 

 

By Sunil Raghu

 

AHMEDABAD – The Gujarat government is in talks with Reliance Industries Ltd. and three other players to set up one or more sub-sea optic fibre cable landing stations on the state's coast, Mona Khandhar, principal secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Gujarat, said. The state government has been seeking to host a cable landing station on the state's coast for long, without much success. In March, Informist had reported, quoting sources, that the Gujarat government was in talks with private players, including Reliance Industries, to host a sub-sea cable landing station in the state.

 

Chairman Mukesh Ambani in Reliance Industries' annual general meeting in August 2024 had announced that the company intended to set up the world's largest artificial intelligence-powered data centre facility in Gujarat. Later, it was reported that the facility would have a capacity of 3 gigawatts and could cost up to $30 billion. RIL is planning to set up its own cable landing station in Jamnagar, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

 

The state government had earlier hoped to have one landing station in the state, but is now open to multiple landing points, Khandar said. "We (Gujarat government) are not going to set up any landing points. It will be done by the interested private players, and how many of the four finally come depends on the incentives these players seek," Khandhar told Informist.

 

The Gujarat government offers capital expenditure support to set up infrastructure, provides land on concessional terms and gives electricity and connectivity support to those wanting to set up such landing stations in the state. Moreover, operators based out of Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, or GIFT City, would also benefit from tax incentives. Khandhar said two firms are looking to set up their cable landing stations in south Gujarat and the other two, including RIL, in Saurashtra region. However, she refused to share any more details, citing confidentiality.

 

A cable landing station serves as the point for landing submarine cables connecting countries and continents. These underwater cables, made of optic fibre strands, carry massive amounts of data between countries and are connected to land-based networks. These cables carry nearly 95% of international data traffic, making them critical for digital economies.

 

Currently, Tata Communications Ltd., Bharti Airtel Ltd., Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., Vodafone Idea Ltd., and Global Cloud Exchange have their networks connected to sub-sea optic fibre cable landing stations across the country's coasts. India currently has 14 international submarine cable landing stations, where 17 international sub-sea cables land. These 14 stations are located in Mumbai, Chennai, Thoothukudi, Kochi, and Puducherry. Of these, most sub-sea cables that connect India to the world across Europe, Southeast Asia, and West Asia are either in Mumbai or Chennai, which host four and three international sub-sea landing stations, respectively.

 

The proposed facilities in Gujarat will enable connectivity to international submarine cable networks, enabling faster and more reliable data transmission and data storage by building data centres within the state. This will help build digital hubs that attract tech companies, reduce latency, and support cloud services. Each landing station could cost anywhere between INR 20 billion to INR 45 billion, depending on the location and infrastructure, a government official said.

 

The official mentioned above said the other landing point in Gujarat for which talks are on is near Bhavnagar, which is close to the upcoming Dholera city as well as GIFT City in Gandhinagar. "Tata group could benefit from having a landing point near Bhavnagar, as it is closest to its upcoming INR-1-trillion semiconductor fab (fabrication) unit of Tata Electronics Ltd. in Dholera," he said on condition of anonymity.

 

The Gujarat government also wants GIFT City to be connected through global sub-sea optic fibre cables, as it is currently home to the data centres of Japan-based telecom company NTT and Hiranandani Group's data services provider Yotta. Setting up a data centre will also require a large amount of electricity and water, and both Jamnagar and GIFT City have enough of these resources, another senior government official said. The other key factor to be considered when deciding the location of a sub-sea cable landing station is that the seawater should be relatively calm, with less shipping traffic and enough security, the official said.

 

At 1426 IST, shares of Reliance Industries were up 1.4% at INR 1,515.90 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

US$1 = INR 85.49

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

 

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