Tarun Karthick
Sri Vijaya Puram, 13 October 2025
The repair of the crucial Car Nicobar–Kamorta segment of the Chennai–Andaman and Nicobar Islands (CANI) Submarine Optical Fibre Cable System appears set to begin soon, with strong indications that the Singapore-registered cable repair ship ASEAN Restorer has been deployed for the task.
Nicobar Times has been tracking the ASEAN Restorer for the last two days. The vessel was earlier positioned at the Chennai Anchorage but, since the morning hours of 12th October, its status has changed to “moored” at Chennai Port. As of 1:24 AM on 13th October, the ship remains moored at Chennai Port, according to terrestrial AIS data available on open web platforms. Reliable sources have informed Nicobar Times that ASEAN Restorer has been mobilized to undertake repair work on the CANI cable fault in Car Nicobar-Kamorta Segment that has disrupted connectivity in Nancowry and Great Nicobar since 20th September 2025. The sources further indicated that certain customs-related formalities are being completed at Chennai before the vessel departs for the islands to carry out the undersea repairs.
Although no official confirmation has yet been issued naming the vessel, circumstantial evidence points strongly to ASEAN Restorer’s involvement. The ship is operated by ASEAN Cableship Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based contractor that provides cable maintenance services under the South East Asia Indian Ocean Cable Maintenance Agreement (SEAIOCMA) — a cooperative maintenance framework covering submarine cable systems across the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia.
SEAIOCMA is a consortium of about 45 cable owners and operators that coordinates emergency repairs for submarine cable faults across a vast area extending from Djibouti to Guam and from Taiwan to Perth. When faults occur, SEAIOCMA dispatches contracted repair vessels positioned at strategic ports for rapid deployment. In the Indian Ocean region, the contracted maintenance partners include the UK’s Global Marine Group and Singapore’s ASEAN Cableship Pte Ltd, which operates a fleet of specialised vessels—ASEAN Restorer, ASEAN Explorer, ASEAN Protector, and ASEAN Challenger.
The ASEAN Restorer is among the region’s most advanced undersea repair ships, equipped with remotely operated grapnels, precision cable splicing systems, and deep-sea testing equipment that allows round-the-clock operations. Its current presence at Chennai Port coincides with the urgent requirement to restore the CANI system’s Car Nicobar-Kamorta Segment, lending further weight to reports of its deployment.
The CANI Submarine Optical Fibre Cable, inaugurated in 2020, is a milestone project that connected Chennai to Sri Vijaya Puram, Swaraj Dweep, Long Island, Rangat, Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Kamorta, and Great Nicobar through a high-capacity optical fibre link. However, the ongoing outage in the Car Nicobar–Kamorta segment since 20th September has forced the southern Nicobar Islands to depend entirely on limited satellite bandwidth, leading to widespread internet and communication disruptions.
Residents across Nancowry and Great Nicobar continue to face difficulties due to the outage, which has affected daily communication, digital transactions etc. The outage has once again highlighted the vulnerability of remote island regions dependent on a single submarine cable system for all digital connectivity.
The Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Tripartite Agreement for the CANI Submarine Cable Project between the USOF (Department of Telecommunications), BSNL, and the UT Administration of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands states that BSNL has entered into a separate agreement with SEAIOCMA for the wet plant maintenance of the CANI system. Given SEAIOCMA’s standard operating procedures and the ship’s operational readiness at Chennai, it appears likely that the ASEAN Restorer will set sail for the Nicobar Islands once pre-departure clearances are completed.
The incident also underscores the pressing need for a secondary or backup submarine cable to prevent complete connectivity blackouts in the future. While the region awaits full restoration, the sight of ASEAN Restorer at Chennai Port offers hope that the digital lifeline of the southern Nicobars will soon be reconnected.
