Tarun Karthick
Sri Vijaya Puram, 17 October 2025
The Singapore-registered cable repair vessel ASEAN Restorer, operated by ASEAN Cableship Pte. Ltd., has set sail from Chennai Port and is currently en route to Car Nicobar to carry out urgent repairs on the CANI Submarine Cable. The vessel is expected to arrive at Car Nicobar by 18 October 2025, marking a significant milestone toward restoring high-speed communication to the southern Nicobar Islands.
Connectivity to the southern islands — Nancowry and Great Nicobar — has remained severely affected since 20 September 2025, when a fault developed approximately 1.06 kilometres off Car Nicobar in the “wet plant” segment of the Chennai–Andaman & Nicobar Islands (CANI) Submarine Optical Fibre Cable. The disruption has left these islands reliant on limited satellite-based backup links, resulting in poor mobile network communication, and restricted digital communication.
The outage has had far-reaching effects on daily life and essential services. Government operations, digital transactions, and online services have been affected, while traders have reported a sharp decline in business due to failures in UPI and other online payment systems — a particularly difficult setback during the festive season.
Commissioned in 2020, the CANI Submarine Optical Fibre Cable connects Chennai with several islands across the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, including Sri Vijaya Puram, Swaraj Dweep, Long Island, Rangat, Little Andaman, Car Nicobar, Kamorta, and Great Nicobar. It serves as the digital backbone of the Union Territory, linking the islands to the mainland through high-speed data and voice connectivity.
The present fault in the Car Nicobar–Kamorta segment has effectively severed the southern Islands — Nancowry, and Great Nicobar — from the fibre network, cutting off their primary communication link to the rest of the islands and the mainland.
The ASEAN Restorer belongs to the fleet operated by ASEAN Cableship Pte. Ltd., one of the contractors of the South East Asia Indian Ocean Cable Maintenance Agreement (SEAIOCMA) — a regional consortium comprising 45 cable owners and operators that collectively maintain submarine cable systems across the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia.
BSNL, which handles the CANI cable’s maintenance under a Tripartite Operation and Maintenance Agreement with the Department of Telecommunications (USOF) and the UT Administration of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, is responsible for ensuring the necessary repairs to the undersea (wet plant) section of the system through SEAIOCMA,.
The repair operations on undersea optical fibre cables are a complex process that require specialised equipment, advanced tools, and a skilled crew. The vessel will first locate the fault on the physical cable in the sea using advanced detection systems and if required remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) may be used. It will then retrieve the affected portion of the cable using cable grapnels and deep-sea handling gear. Once the damaged section is brought on board, technicians will carry out precise repairs and splicing in a controlled environment before re-laying the cable on the seabed. The ASEAN Restorer is equipped with state-of-the-art repair machinery, ROVs, and round-the-clock operational capability to ensure timely restoration of services even under challenging sea conditions.
This episode has once again highlighted the vulnerability of the islands’ communication infrastructure, which depends entirely on a single submarine cable system. Experts and local representatives have long advocated for a secondary or backup optical fibre link to ensure redundancy and continuous service incase of an outage. Notably, the 7th Island Development Agency (IDA) meeting chaired by the Union Home Minister in January 2025 had already emphasised the need for an additional submarine connection — potentially from Puri to Diglipur — to enhance the digital resilience of the islands.
As the ASEAN Restorer approaches Car Nicobar, anticipation is high across the Nicobar District. Once the fault in the Car Nicobar–Kamorta segment is rectified, broadband and mobile data services in Nancowry and Great Nicobar are expected to be fully restored, bringing much-needed relief to residents and institutions after nearly a month of digital isolation.
With the vessel expected to reach Car Nicobar tomorrow, the long-awaited restoration of the CANI Submarine Cable appears imminent — a crucial step toward reconnecting the southern Nicobars with the rest of the world.
