AGARTALA / NEW DELHI, May 24 (TIWN): India and Bangladesh will sign a pact on sharing Internet bandwith as a result of which the submarine cable providing Net to Bangladesh will travel to Agartala from Cox's Bazar via Brahmanbaria. The agreement is likely to be signed during PM Narendra Modi's Dhaka visit in June, an Indian diplomat told TIWN.Bangladesh has agreed to sell off its unused submarine Internet bandwidth to India's state owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) for $ 1.2 million ( Rs 7.7 crores) a year. The agreement will be for four years and India will gain 10 gigabytes per second bandwidth in the firs year with a provision for this to go up to 40 gigabytes -per second in the subsequent years.India is going for purchasing this surplus unused bandwidth from Bangladesh to develop the IT industry in Northeast.Agartala could emerge as the hub of the IT industry in Northeast if the state government moves fast enough to create necessary conditions .The state's Left government can invite IT majors like Infosys who have threatened to pull out of West Bengal after Mamata Banerjee government refused to give SEZ status to the IT parks that top companies were intending to create infrastructures.

"Instead of wasting money on building community halls, stadiums and other non-productive work, the state government should immediately create necessary infrastructure for IT parks ," said a senior Tripura government official, but on condition of anonymity.