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Microscan is reportedly planning to invest about ₹350 crore (₹3.5 billion) in a subsea cable landing station at Alibaug, roughly 95 km from Mumbai. The Economic Times reported the proposal on 7 October 2026, but the available evidence describes a planned facility and commercial discussions—not a completed, licensed or operating station.

What Microscan has reportedly proposed

The Economic Times says Mumbai-based fibre and digital-infrastructure provider Microscan plans an Alibaug cable landing station aimed at hyperscalers, telecom carriers and submarine-cable owners. The report names Henox IT and Data Centers, Singapore-based Datawave and an unnamed London-based global subsea telecom operator as parties with which Microscan was discussing possible cable landings.

Those discussions are not the same as signed landing agreements. No company or government source identified for this article confirms construction, financing closure, permits, licences, cable assignments or an operational date for the Alibaug site.

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Reported item What is established
Investment About ₹350 crore, as reported by The Economic Times
Location Alibaug, approximately 95 km from Mumbai, according to the report
Target users Hyperscalers, telecom carriers and cable owners
Named counterparties Henox IT and Data Centers, Datawave and an unnamed London-based operator were reported as discussion parties
Development status Proposal and reported discussions; operational status, approvals and signed contracts are not established

Why Alibaug is being considered

The business case described by The Economic Times centres on reducing concentration at Versova and using Microscan’s existing metropolitan fibre reach. Microscan founder and managing director Sandeep Donde was reported as saying that 15 of 17 international cables land along a six-kilometre stretch at Versova. If accurate, that concentration gives a new coastal gateway a potential diversification role, although the report does not quantify the resilience or capacity that an Alibaug station would provide.

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The proposed gateway would, according to the report, connect directly to Microscan’s underground fibre network linking more than 45 data centres, exchanges and financial markets in and around Mumbai. That is a reported network-connectivity claim, not a published engineering specification for the proposed station.

What a subsea cable landing station does

A subsea cable landing station is the coastal facility where an undersea communications cable reaches shore and connects to terrestrial telecom networks. Inside the station, specialised equipment terminates the submarine system, hands traffic to inland fibre routes and supports monitoring, power, protection and maintenance operations. The landing building is only one part of the wider system: offshore cable routes, beach or near-shore works, terrestrial backhaul and regulatory clearances also matter.

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For Alibaug, the reported value proposition is the combination of a new landing location and direct access to Microscan’s Mumbai-area underground network. The report does not disclose the station’s design capacity, number of cable systems, route diversity, construction schedule, ownership structure or pricing.

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Microscan’s existing infrastructure and services

The Economic Times describes Microscan as a private Mumbai-based fibre and digital-infrastructure provider with more than 1,800 km of fibre in Mumbai, Pune and elsewhere in Maharashtra, plus a presence in Goa. Its reported business lines include ultra-low-latency financial networks, enterprise connectivity, broadband, cloud and cybersecurity.

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The same report says Microscan launched Security Operations Centre as a Service on the Tuesday of publication. That launch provides company context but does not confirm that the SOCaaS product, or any other existing service, depends on or will be offered from the proposed Alibaug station.

How the proposal fits India’s cable and data-centre market

A Press Information Bureau release dated 18 March 2026 reported that India’s data-centre capacity had grown from 375 MW in 2020 to more than 1,500 MW through 2025. Its city table listed Mumbai/Navi Mumbai at 790 MW, Chennai at 305 MW, Bengaluru at 182 MW, Hyderabad at 152 MW, Delhi-NCR/Noida at 76 MW, and other cities including Pune and Kolkata at 15 MW.

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Those are dated government-reported figures, not a 2026 measurement of the Alibaug project or proof that the proposed station has secured customers. The same release said four submarine cable systems were under commissioning and three were under planning. Its planning list included the Wyasa Cable System for Chennai, Indian Ocean Cable for Raigad, Maharashtra, and the WABAN Cable System for Mumbai. The release did not associate any of those systems with Microscan’s Alibaug proposal; Raigad planning should not be treated as an Alibaug landing commitment.

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Regulatory requirements and what remains unknown

TRAI’s 19 June 2023 recommendations on India’s submarine-cable landing licensing and regulatory framework describe two categories: a main cable landing station and cable landing-station points of presence. The recommendations address licensing, security and regulatory duties, domestic submarine cables, repair vessels, cable depots and terrestrial connectivity between landing stations.

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TRAI’s press note states: “Domestic and international submarine cables can terminate at the same CLS but with each cable having its own separate network element/equipment.” This explains how a facility can host different cable systems while keeping their network elements distinct.

The recommendations are a national framework, not evidence that Microscan has obtained project-specific approval. The sources available for this report do not establish whether the Alibaug site has land, environmental, coastal, construction, security or telecom permissions, nor whether a licence application has been accepted.

Is the Alibaug station already operational?

No. The 7 October 2026 Economic Times article describes Microscan’s plan and reported talks. It does not establish that construction has started, that a submarine cable has been committed to the site, or that the facility is accepting live traffic. Confirmation would require a formal Microscan announcement, an agreement naming a cable system, relevant government or regulator records, and evidence of commissioning.

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What to watch next

  • A named cable owner or carrier signing a landing agreement with Microscan.
  • Planning, environmental, coastal or construction approvals for the specific Alibaug site.
  • A telecom or cable-landing licence and any published security or operating conditions.
  • Details of the terrestrial backhaul route, station capacity, redundancy and commissioning timetable.
  • An official statement confirming whether the reported ₹350 crore is a committed budget, an estimate or a staged investment.

Until those details are published, the proposal is best understood as a prospective second Mumbai-area gateway intended to complement existing landing infrastructure, rather than as a new operating node in India’s international cable network.

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