Summary:
India’s internet infrastructure faces a significant vulnerability in Mumbai’s Versova area, where 13 of its 18 international submarine cables land within just six kilometres and carry up to 95% of the country’s international bandwidth. While traffic can be rerouted through other landing stations such as Chennai and Kochi if cables are damaged, even minor slowdowns could have serious consequences for banks, stock exchanges, cloud providers, government networks and AI infrastructure.
One of India’s major digital weak points is located along a six-kilometre section of Mumbai’s Arabian Sea coastline.
In Versova, a densely populated area in the northwestern part of the city, at least 13 of India’s 18 intercontinental submarine cables come ashore within a distance of just six kilometres.
Collectively, these cables transport up to 95% of India’s international bandwidth connecting the country with Europe, Africa and West Asia.
Anwesha Sen of the Takshashila Institution, a think tank, describes the network as highly vulnerable because of its significant geographic concentration.
She warns that if multiple cables were severed at the same time, whether through an accident or deliberate action, a substantial portion of India’s westbound connectivity to West Asia, Africa and Europe could be disrupted.
However, the design of submarine cable networks allows internet traffic to be redirected, meaning a cable failure would not necessarily result in a complete internet blackout.
Experts say traffic could instead be routed through alternative landing stations, including Chennai and Kochi in southern India. India’s 18 submarine cables currently land at Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin, Tuticorin and Trivandrum.
Even a decline in network performance, such as a slight increase in the time required for data to travel, could have significant financial and operational consequences for banks, stock exchanges, cloud service providers and government networks. AI infrastructure could be especially vulnerable because it depends on large volumes of data being transferred at high speeds.
