AGARTALA,Oct 1 (TIWN): The work of optical fiber line connection with Bangladesh will be completed within the schedule time said BSNL high official. Meanwhile, major portion work is complete and the remaining work likely to be completed before Durga Puja.

BSNL is hopeful from December or January next high speed internet service will be functional in the state. The survey of laying optical fiber is complete. A meeting was held on Tuesday in Shllong to review the progress of work with Bangladesh officials. The meeting was attended by GM ( NE) of BSNL,Kamal Kumar Saxena and other seniors officials. The detail of the meeting is awaited.

 A BSNL official said, all kind of machineries required for high speed internet connectivity optical fiber likely to reach Agartala before Durga Puja. From Bangalore, the Hawai manufactured machineries are coming. It will take fifteen days time to install the machines after it reaches here. Among the machines on way, there are two routers. One will be installed at BSNL office at Lichu Bagan and the other at North Gate.  

It is mentionable here that on July last, union Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad  laid the foundation stone in Agartala for an international Internet gateway through Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh.Agartala, Tripura's capital city, would be the third international Internet gateway in India after Mumbai and Chennai.

The  central government would spend Rs. 19.14 crore to create the infrastructure, including laying of OFC to avail the 10 gigabit bandwidth from Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL).India had to give around Rs. 8 crore per year as rental fee to BSCCL to avail the telecommunication linkages."

In the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina, an agreement was signed in Dhaka on June 6 between BSCCL and BSNL for leasing of international bandwidth for Internet at Akhaura.

So far northeastern states have been getting Internet connectivity through Mumbai and Chennai international Internet gateway but the distance was creating lots of problems, including very weak speed and drop of linkages.