Agartala : Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will lay optical fibre cable (OFC) through Bangladesh to connect northeast India with the rest of the world, officials of the state-run telecom operator said here on Sept 9.

'We have completed the necessary survey from Tripura capital Agartala to Bangladeshi border town Akhaurah (12 km). The survey is now on from Chittagong of southeast Bangladesh to Ashuganj in eastern Bangladesh and the entire field assessment would be completed by this year end,' BSNL General Manager Debkumar Chakraborty said.

'Immediately after completion of the survey, we would submit report to the government and then the actual works of laying of OFC would start after getting the approval from both New Delhi and Dhaka,' Chakraborty said at the launch of WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) service in the state.

Once the OFC is laid through Bangladesh, telecommunication between the mountainous northeast India and rest of the world would be better, the BSNL official said.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on Sept 9 launched the service. The Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot first introduced the service in Mizoram in July.