Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, June 4:

Indian ambassador to Nepal, Shyam Saran said that the East West Optical Fibre (EWOF) highway project is going to generate economic benefits for Nepali people. Saran was speaking at a seminar on EWOF highway project here today organised by the embassy of India. He said that this project would help in deriving commercial benefits. “If Nepal is looking for a future in information technology (IT) sector, this project then will turn out to be a crucial one,” Saran opined. He also informed that the government of India is considering extending help on Nepal government’s request for the second phase of the project.

Binod Bahadur Shrestha, president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), said the optical fibre project is sure to open business opportunities in various telecom related segments. The project will turn out to be a backbone of our international network in telecommunication services, said Shrestha. At a time when we are talking about infrastructure development, the operation of WWOF is a crucial development, Shrestha said.

S K Pudasaini of Nepal Telecom said that the project will be useful in making telephone services available in an adequate number and also help in the reduction of the cost of telecom services. EWOF information super highway will have a visible and measurable impact on the domestic traffic in Nepal and the traffic between India and Nepal. The huge bandwidth available through this network can be gainfully employed for a number of purposes.

This network is a cheaper option and alternative route for transiting international telecommunications traffic by terrestrial link through India.

According to the Indian embassy, the government of India is considering Nepal’s request for a second phase of the project to lay additional optical fibre cable of 350 km on the main route and of about 625 km on spur routes, which would bring another 53 exchanges into the network and provide four additional trans-border links.