Which subsea cables land in India, and what is coming?
Last updated
About 15 international subsea cables are live in India, mostly landing in Mumbai and Chennai (TeleGeography, 14 Oct 2026). Five more are planned, starting with SEA-ME-WE 6, India Europe Xpress and Raman in 2027. New east-coast landings at Visakhapatnam and Machilipatnam are 2027 to 2030 projects, not capacity you can buy today.
Key facts
About 15 international subsea cables are live in India, plus 2 domestic cables to the islands. 5 more systems are planned.
As of 14 Oct 2026. TeleGeography
Mumbai has about 9 to 11 international landing stations and about 11 to 12 live international cables. Chennai has about 6 stations and 6 live cables.
As of 14 Oct 2026. FlexiCloud tally from TeleGeography, operator releases and TRAI
The latest official figure: India's lit international subsea capacity was 138,606 Gbps, with 111,111 Gbps (80%) activated.
As of end-2022 (published 19 Jun 2023). TRAI
SEA-ME-WE 6 landed in Mumbai (Dec 2024) and Chennai (Feb 2025), with 126 to 132 Tbps of design capacity. Service is expected in 2027.
As of Oct 2026. Bharti Airtel; TeleGeography
Cable repairs in Indian waters have taken 3 to 5 months, because repair ships are based abroad.
As of Jun 2023. TRAI
Terms used on this page (3)
- Cable landing station
- The building where a subsea cable comes ashore and joins land networks.
- Design vs lit capacity
- Design capacity is the most a cable could carry once every fibre pair is fully equipped. Lit capacity is what has been switched on with equipment; in TRAI's figures, activated capacity is the part of that in use.
- Gbps, Tbps
- Gigabits and terabits per second, the units for network capacity. 1 Tbps is 1,000 Gbps.
Live cables, planned cables and landing stations
India's international internet capacity lands mainly in Mumbai and Chennai. About 15 international cables are live, plus 2 domestic cables to the islands, and 5 more are planned (TeleGeography, 14 Oct 2026).
New routes are coming to the east coast at Visakhapatnam and Machilipatnam. They are 2027 to 2030 projects, not capacity you can buy today.
What this means for a GPU cloud
Use Mumbai for reach and Chennai for the shortest path to Singapore, and buy at least one route that avoids the Red Sea. East-coast landings are a 2027 to 2030 option, not capacity you can buy today.
International cables live in India
| Cable | Indian landing | Landing station operator | In service | Design capacity (public) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| i2i | Chennai | Bharti Airtel | 2002 | 8.4 Tbps design | Chennai to Singapore; largest by lit capacity in 2021 |
| SAFE | Kochi | Tata Communications | 2002 | 130 Gbps after upgrade | Kochi's only international cable since SEA-ME-WE 3 retired (Dec 2024) |
| Tata TGN-Tata Indicom (TIC) | Chennai | Tata Communications | 2004 | 5.12 Tbps design | Chennai to Singapore |
| SeaMeWe-4 | Mumbai, Chennai | Bharti Airtel | 2005 | 4.6 Tbps after 2015 upgrade | Europe via the Red Sea |
| Bharat Lanka | Tuticorin | BSNL | 2006 | Up to 960 Gbps | To Sri Lanka |
| FALCON | Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram | GCX | 2006 | 2.56 Tbps initial | Gulf, Sri Lanka, Maldives |
| FLAG Europe-Asia (FEA) | Mumbai | Tata Communications | 1997 | Not published | Low lit capacity (50 Gbps in 2021) |
| SEACOM / Tata TGN-Eurasia | Mumbai | Tata Communications | 2009; 2012 | TGN-Eurasia 1.28 Tbps initial | Middle East, Africa, Europe |
| IMEWE | Mumbai (2 stations) | Tata Communications | 2010 | 5.6 Tbps by 2016 | Europe via the Red Sea |
| Europe India Gateway (EIG) | Mumbai | Bharti Airtel | 2011 | 3.84 Tbps plus later upgrades | Europe via the Red Sea |
| GBI / MENA | Mumbai | Sify | 2012; 2014 | MENA 5.76 Tbps initial | Gulf and Egypt |
| Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG) | Mumbai, Chennai | Vodafone Idea (Mumbai); Reliance Jio (Chennai) | 2016 | About 10 Tbps per pair, 3 pairs | Lands in Malaysia (Penang), Sri Lanka, Oman, UAE |
| AAE-1 | Mumbai | Reliance Jio | 2017 | 100+ Tbps after 2022 upgrade | Asia to Europe via the Red Sea |
| India Asia Xpress (IAX) | Mumbai, Chennai | Reliance Jio | Q4 2024 | IAX plus IEX 200+ Tbps (Jio, 2021) | To South-East Asia; Sri Lanka landing live May 2025 |
| MIST | Mumbai, Chennai | NTT DATA (own stations) | Jun 2025 (TeleGeography: Dec 2024) | 216+ Tbps on 12 fibre pairs | To Singapore; Tata Communications buying one fibre pair |
Also landed: 2Africa Pearls branch at Mumbai (Airtel, Mar 2025), go-live expected 2026, not confirmed live. Domestic: CANI (Chennai to Andaman and Nicobar, 2020) and KLI (Kochi to Lakshadweep, 2024). Capacities are design or upgrade figures, not lit capacity.
Cables coming to India
| Cable or project | Indian landing | Landing party | Status and date | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEA-ME-WE 6 | Mumbai, Chennai | Bharti Airtel (new stations linked to Nxtra DCs) | Landed Dec 2024 and Feb 2025; service expected 2027 (TeleGeography) | 126 to 132 Tbps, 10 fibre pairs |
| 2Africa Pearls | Mumbai | Bharti Airtel | Landed Mar 2025; go-live expected 2026 (Meta) | 100+ Tbps to India (Airtel) |
| India Europe Xpress (IEX) | Mumbai | Reliance Jio | 2027 (TeleGeography) | 9,775 km |
| Raman (Blue-Raman) | Mumbai | Sify | 2027; Red Sea section delayed as of Jan 2026 | 218 Tbps, 16 fibre pairs |
| I-2SEA | Machilipatnam (Andhra Pradesh), South Chennai | Lightstorm (open access) | Contracts signed 2 Jul 2026; service targeted Q4 2029 | 3,600 km to Singapore and Malaysia |
| Google Visakhapatnam gateway | Visakhapatnam | Airtel to build the landing station | Announced Oct 2025 and Feb 2026; no cable names or dates yet | Paths to Singapore, and via Chennai to South Africa |
| Project Waterworth (Meta) | India (sites not announced) | Not announced | Announced Feb 2025; no date | 50,000+ km, 24 fibre pairs |
TeleGeography lists 5 planned systems for India (SEA-ME-WE 6, IEX, Raman, I-2SEA and Waterworth). 2Africa Pearls has landed but is not confirmed live, and the Google gateway has no named cable yet, so both are shown here too. Stalled: TEAS (no India progress since May 2022) and IOX to Puducherry (suspended).
Landing stations by city
| City | International stations (approx.) | Operators | International cables live | Coming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mumbai | About 9 to 11 | Tata Communications, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, GCX, Sify, Vodafone Idea, NTT DATA | About 11 to 12 | SMW6, 2Africa Pearls, IEX, Raman |
| Chennai | About 6, plus 1 domestic | Tata Communications, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, NTT DATA; BSNL (domestic) | 6 | SMW6, I-2SEA (South Chennai, 2029) |
| Kochi | 1, plus 1 domestic | Tata Communications; BSNL (domestic) | 1 (SAFE) | None announced |
| Thiruvananthapuram | 1 | GCX | 1 (FALCON) | None announced |
| Tuticorin | 1 | BSNL | 1 (Bharat Lanka) | None announced |
| Visakhapatnam and Machilipatnam | None confirmed lit | Airtel (for Google); Lightstorm (I-2SEA); Sify open landing station under construction | None confirmed | Google gateway; I-2SEA 2029 |
Our tally from TeleGeography, operator releases and TRAI, as of 14 Oct 2026. TRAI's last official count (Jun 2023) was 17 cables; a 2024 trade report counted 14 landing stations in 5 cities. No single official list exists.
India's international subsea capacity (TRAI)
| Year end | Lit capacity (Gbps) | Activated (Gbps) | Share activated |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 39,282 | 9,137 | 23% |
| 2018 | 67,180 | 27,307 | 41% |
| 2020 | 101,342 | 62,681 | 62% |
| 2021 | 123,870 | 83,800 | 68% |
| 2022 | 138,606 | 111,111 | 80% |
Latest official series, published by TRAI on 19 Jun 2023. Several large cables have landed since.
What it means for site choice
- Mumbai has the most cables and landing operators, but most of its westbound routes cross the Red Sea, where faults and security delays have hit India traffic.
- Chennai is the direct route to Singapore and has spare data centre space. It is a natural second site.
- Visakhapatnam and Machilipatnam are a 2027 to 2030 bet that depends on Google's gateway and I-2SEA arriving on time.
- Cable repairs in Indian waters have taken 3 to 5 months because repair ships are based abroad (TRAI, 2023). Plan for path diversity, not a single cable: see exchanges, carriers and latency.
Policy is still catching up
TRAI proposed easier landing rules, cable corridors and incentives for new landing cities in June 2023. As of February 2025 these were still under government consideration, folded into a new long-distance authorisation. This is general information, not legal advice.
Sources for this section (12)
- TeleGeography. Submarine Cable Map: India. 14 Oct 2026
- TRAI. Recommendations on submarine cable landing in India. 19 Jun 2023
- TRAI. Consultation paper on submarine cable landing (per-cable capacity). 23 Dec 2022
- TRAI. Recommendations on network authorisations under the Telecommunications Act 2023. 17 Feb 2025
- Bharti Airtel. Airtel lands the SEA-ME-WE 6 cable in Chennai. 17 Feb 2025
- Bharti Airtel. Airtel lands the 2Africa Pearls cable in India. 27 Mar 2025
- Meta. Completion of the core 2Africa system. 17 Nov 2025
- SubmarineNetworks. Consortium launches build of I-2SEA. 3 Jul 2026
- SubmarineNetworks. MIST cable system. 2026
- SubmarineNetworks. Blue-Raman cable system. Jan 2026
- Google India. Announcing America-India Connect. 18 Feb 2026
- Meta. Project Waterworth. 14 Feb 2025
Subsea cables
Frequently asked questions
About 15 international subsea cables are live in India, plus 2 domestic cables to the islands: CANI to Andaman and Nicobar (2020) and KLI to Lakshadweep (2024), as of 14 Oct 2026 (TeleGeography). TRAI's last official count (Jun 2023) was 17 cables, and no single official list exists. TRAI also reported 138,606 Gbps of lit international capacity at end-2022, with 80% of it activated.
Mostly in Mumbai and Chennai. Mumbai has about 9 to 11 international landing stations and about 11 to 12 live international cables; Chennai has about 6 stations and 6 live cables (our tally, 14 Oct 2026). Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Tuticorin have one international cable each.
SEA-ME-WE 6, India Europe Xpress (IEX) and Raman are expected in 2027, all landing in Mumbai, with SEA-ME-WE 6 also in Chennai (TeleGeography, Oct 2026). Raman's Red Sea section was delayed as of Jan 2026. 2Africa Pearls landed in Mumbai in Mar 2025 and Meta expects it to go live in 2026. I-2SEA is targeted for Q4 2029, and Meta's Project Waterworth has no date yet.
Yes, at Visakhapatnam and Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, but not soon. Google has announced a Visakhapatnam gateway with Airtel building the landing station, with no cable names or dates yet (Feb 2026). I-2SEA contracts were signed on 2 Jul 2026 for landings at Machilipatnam and South Chennai, with service targeted for Q4 2029. Treat both as 2027 to 2030 options, not capacity you can buy today.
Use Mumbai for reach: it has the most cables and landing operators. Chennai is the direct route to Singapore and has spare data centre space, so it is a natural second site. Most of Mumbai's westbound routes cross the Red Sea, so buy at least one route that avoids it. Cable repairs in Indian waters have taken 3 to 5 months (TRAI, 2023), so plan for more than one cable.
TRAI proposed easier landing rules, cable corridors and incentives for new landing cities in June 2023. As of February 2025, these were still under government consideration and had been folded into a new long-distance authorisation. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm the current position with Indian telecom counsel before you plan around it.
FlexiCloud DC advisory
Planning capacity in India?
FlexiCloud DC advisory can map carriers, cloud on-ramps and subsea path diversity for the Indian sites on your shortlist, so your network plan goes into the contract.
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