Seeking to host a cable landing station on its coast, Gujarat is currently in talks with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and three other players for setting up this facility that will act as a gateway and connect submarine cables carrying data with the internet infrastructure on land. 

The government is looking to set up one or multiple cable landing stations in the state. “We are planning to set up cable landing stations in the state. We have received proposals from four companies and we are currently examining them,” Mona Khandhar, Principal Secretary, Science and Technology department, Government of Gujarat told businessline. 

Today almost all digital international communications transit through a network of submarine cables laid on the ocean floor. These cables carry high volumes of data between countries and continents.

A cable landing station is a location in a country where these submarine cables make landfall and connect with the internet infrastructure on land.

“Two of these proposals are for setting up cable landing stations in Saurashtra region, while two others are for South Gujarat region. These facilities are being set up by private entities,” Khandhar said, adding that the government was trying to finalise the proposals. The IAS official however refused to share further details of the project citing confidentiality.

In October 2022, Lightstorm had signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state government for building Gujarat’s first cable landing station and data centres. However, details about the current status of the project -- which proposed to connect Europe to Gujarat through submarine cables have not been made public.

According to Government of India data, there are 17 cable landing stations in India. These facilities are spread in Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Tuticorin and Thiruvananthapuram. Tata Communications, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Sify Technologies and BSNL are some of the companies that are involved in the submarine cable infrastructure business in the country.

Under the Gujarat IT/ITES policy (2022-27), Gujarat government will provide incentives to such projects. This includes facilitating the setting up cable landing stations in form of identification and allotment of suitable land and utility infrastructure support at the doorstep. The government will also provide one time capital expenditure support and electricity tariff subsidy for a period of five years.

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Published on June 28, 2025