Sea erosion threatens submarine cable

The connecting point of the high-tech undersea Submarine Cable came under threat near Kalatali beach just one year after the inauguration as coast erosion took a serious turn near the site.

In view of the situation, the authorities hoisted red flag on the affected point amid the active monsoon that made the Bay of Bengal rough.

Very recently, Bangladesh got connected to the global information superhighway with submarine cable, the main internet backbone, through fiber-optic cables laid under seabed, adding tremendous value to its ICT and ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services).

Former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia formally inaugurated the Tk 628-crore Submarine Cable Landing Station at Jhilangjha on May 21 last year.

Some 16 companies of 14 countries are the consortium members of the Submarine Cable Project. The member- countries are Singapore, Malaysia, England, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria and France.

"The project, just after inauguration last year, also faced disaster when seawaters had washed away sands from the high-voltage cable area, which occurs frequently," many a local source said.

The connecting-point manhole of the 20,000-km submarine cable has been constructed at Kalapara beach. The length of Bangladesh branch cable is 1260 kilometers.

A local hotel owner told the UNB district correspondent that the tourist resort is being threatened by erosion as an under-construction hotel near Kalatali beach already went into the gorge of the Bay.

Bahauddin, sub assistant engineer of the Submarine Cable Landing Station at Jhilangjha, said they were worried and informed the higher authority about the situation to take "immediate steps".