India’s rapid digital expansion is increasingly reliant on a fragile and concentrated undersea cable network that connects the country to the global internet. While the nation boasts one of the world’s largest internet markets, a significant vulnerability lies just off the coast of Mumbai, where the majority of India’s international data cables converge in a narrow stretch of shoreline. This geographic bottleneck exposes India’s internet infrastructure to risks that could disrupt connectivity for millions and hamper the country’s burgeoning digital economy.
The Mumbai Bottleneck: A Digital Choke Point
At least 13 of India’s 18 intercontinental submarine cables land within a mere six-kilometre stretch near Versova beach in Mumbai. These cables carry up to 95% of India’s international bandwidth to regions including Europe, Africa, and West Asia. This concentration creates a critical vulnerability: damage to this cluster—whether accidental, natural, or deliberate—could severely impact India’s global internet connectivity.
Submarine cables are the backbone of global communication, carrying about 99% of international data traffic. Yet India’s cable infrastructure is heavily skewed towards this single coastal zone, a legacy of historical demand and ecosystem development around Mumbai. While rerouting traffic through other landing points such as Chennai, Kochi, Tuticorin, and Trivandrum is possible, it often results in performance degradation, which can be costly for sectors reliant on low latency and high-speed data transfer, such as banking, stock exchanges, cloud services, and AI-driven applications.
Infrastructure Aging and Repair Challenges
More than half of India’s international submarine cables are over two decades old, approaching the typical 25-year lifespan of such systems. Aging infrastructure increases the likelihood of faults, which globally occur 150-200 times annually, mostly due to fishing activities, ship anchors, natural hazards, or equipment failure rather than sabotage.
India’s capacity to respond to cable faults is hampered by the lack of domestic cable repair ships. Currently, India depends on foreign vessels from places like Dubai and Singapore, which must obtain regulatory permissions before operating in Indian waters—a process that can add weeks to repair times. This regulatory bottleneck exacerbates the vulnerability of India’s internet infrastructure, turning what could be a manageable outage into a prolonged disruption.
Disparity Between Data Demand and Physical Infrastructure
India consumes about 20% of the world’s data but controls only around 3% of the global submarine cable infrastructure. Moreover, the country has just 21 cable landing stations compared to nearly 1,900 worldwide. This stark mismatch highlights a paradox: India’s digital economy is booming, yet it lacks commensurate control over the physical infrastructure that underpins international connectivity.
Rapid growth in data centers, driven by AI and cloud computing demands, is pushing the need for more and faster cable capacity. Government data shows installed data center capacity has quadrupled in just a few years, but subsea cable projects take years to plan and deploy. Without accelerated infrastructure development, India risks lagging behind the pace of its own digital transformation.
Regulatory Fragmentation and the Need for Streamlined Governance
One of the biggest hurdles to expanding and securing India’s submarine cable network is the fragmented regulatory environment. More than a dozen government agencies across telecom, defense, shipping, environment, and state authorities are involved in approvals, often requiring multiple clearances. Establishing a cable landing station can involve up to 50 separate clearances, significantly slowing down both new projects and urgent repairs.
Experts advocate for a centralized, single-window clearance system under the Department of Telecommunications to expedite permissions, especially for repair vessels. Pre-approving multiple landing sites with standardized conditions could also reduce delays and encourage more diverse cable routes, lessening the Mumbai-centric risk.
Building Resilience for India’s Digital Future
To transform into a regional cable hub and safeguard its digital economy, India must adopt a multi-pronged approach:
- Expand cable landing stations: Increasing the number and geographic diversity of landing points to avoid over-reliance on Mumbai.
- Develop domestic repair capabilities: Investing in Indian cable repair ships and streamlining regulatory approvals to reduce downtime during faults.
- Protect cable routes: Establishing legal protection zones around cables to prevent damage from anchors and fishing activities.
- Implement advanced monitoring: Utilizing technologies like Distributed Acoustic Sensing to detect threats or damage early.
- Streamline governance: Creating a unified regulatory framework to accelerate infrastructure deployment and maintenance.
India has already recognized submarine cables as critical telecommunications infrastructure, a step that should unlock faster clearances and emergency response mechanisms. New cable projects are underway, including systems linking India to Southeast Asia, with plans to diversify landing sites beyond Mumbai.
However, the challenge remains daunting. India’s digital ambitions—from expanding broadband access to powering AI applications—depend on resilient, high-capacity international connectivity. Without urgent attention to the physical and regulatory infrastructure of its undersea cables, India risks undermining the very foundation of its digital revolution.
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