India's internet surge threatened by clustered undersea cables and limited repair capacity
India's reliance on a tightly packed group of submarine cables off Mumbai creates a critical vulnerability, worsened by the absence of domestic repair vessels.
A six-kilometre stretch off Mumbai’s Versova area hosts 13 of India’s 18 intercontinental submarine cables, handling roughly 95% of the nation’s international data to Europe, Africa and West Asia. Analysts say this concentration makes the network vulnerable to simultaneous cuts, which could degrade performance for banks, stock markets and AI workloads, even though traffic can be shifted to Chennai or Kochi. Most cables are over 20 years old, nearing the typical 25-year lifespan, and India has no domestic subsea repair ships, relying on foreign vessels that must secure lengthy licences.
The repair bottleneck, combined with up to 50 clearances across 16 ministries for new landing stations, risks lagging behind rapid data-centre expansion and rising AI-driven demand. Officials propose streamlining permissions, adding more landing sites, and building an Indian repair capability to mitigate the risk. Ongoing projects include four new cable systems, one led by Lightstorm linking India with Malaysia and Singapore, to diversify routes and reduce dependence on the Mumbai hub.
Why it matters
A single failure in India's undersea cable network could disrupt essential services and hinder AI-driven economic growth.
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