When was the undersea cable-based Chennai-Andaman and Nicobar (CANI) Project inaugurated and dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ?
August 10, 2020
The Chennai–Andaman and Nicobar Islands submarine optical fibre cable was dedicated to the nation on 10 August 2020 — option 4.
What the project is. CANI is a submarine optical fibre cable roughly 2,313 km long, laid on the sea bed from Chennai to Port Blair and onward to seven other islands — Swaraj Dweep (Havelock), Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Kamorta, Great Nicobar, Long Island and Rangat. The foundation stone had been laid at Port Blair on 30 December 2018, and the completed link was inaugurated by the Prime Minister through video conference on 10 August 2020.
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Length | About 2,313 km of submarine cable |
| Route | Chennai to Port Blair, then on to seven more islands |
| Capacity | 400 Gbps to Port Blair, 200 Gbps to each other island |
| Executed by | BSNL, funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund |
| Dedicated | 10 August 2020 |
Why it mattered. Before CANI, the islands depended entirely on satellite links, which offered very little bandwidth at high cost. The cable multiplied available capacity many times over, bringing 4G mobile service, e-governance, telemedicine, online education and tourism-related e-commerce within reach of the islands, and it also strengthened India’s strategic communications in the Bay of Bengal.
Eliminating the other dates. August 2019 is a year before completion and falls between the foundation stone and the launch; 15 August 2022 and 26 January 2023 are both after the cable was already in service, and are Independence Day and Republic Day respectively — plausible-sounding dates included precisely to tempt a guess.
Hence, the answer is August 10, 2020.
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