Bangladesh would be connected with the second international submarine cable within three years to ensure uninterrupted network with the global information superhighway, which will also boost the country’s IT business.

‘The second submarine cable project will be completed by December, 2014 at a cost of Tk 450 crore and it will act as an alternative network during the disruption of the existing lone cable,’ Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd  managing director Monwar Hossain told the news agency Sunday.

In this regard, an international bid will be floated next July, he added.

Hossain said business volume of different IT firms would increase, and the growth of call centres, software firms and outsourcing would be boosted through the installation of the second submarine cable. He said the BSCCL would invest Tk 250 crore which it expressed hope to collect from the stock market.

The rest would be managed from international agencies or financial institutions as the government could not contribute to the project, he said.

Posts and telecommunications ministry officials said the finance ministry had given its consent for the project against three conditions.

These are: the government would not bear any cost, it will not guarantee the BSCCL for loans and the BSCCL would not collect the loan from local sources.

The telecommunications ministry has approved the project after getting the consent of the finance ministry.

The state-owned BSCCL has signed a deal on December 27 to join a consortium of more than 16 countries.

Earlier, the BSCCL had joined a meeting with Singapore-based service provider company SingTel about SEA-ME-WE-5 where all participating companies took a decision to use latest 100 Gigabyte technology in the cable that will be 30,000 KM long.  The project of the consortium named SEA-ME-WE 5 (South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 5) is an international undersea optical fibre cable that provides internet connections.

The second submarine cable will follow the route of the current SEA-ME-WE 4 cable and will reach Japan via Hong Kong.

Currently, Bangladesh is connected with the information highway with its only submarine cable SEA- ME-WE 4.

In 2004, the Islamic Development Bank funded the project of SEA- ME-WE 4 cable from France to Singapore.

The first submarine cable at Cox’s Bazar was 1260 km, but the second one will need only 300 km as Myanmar has agreed to join the consortium.

SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable system spans nearly 20,000km, linking 14 countries from France to Singapore through Italy, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia.

Earlier, a local private firm applied to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission for the second submarine cable. But, the regulator didn’t accept the proposal as its offer was not satisfactory.