Mumbai coastline hosts 95% of India's international internet bandwidth

India faces a significant digital vulnerability due to the extreme geographic concentration of its international internet connectivity. At least 13 of the country's 18 intercontinental submarine cables land within a six-kilometre stretch of coastline near Versova, northwest of Mumbai. These cables are critical infrastructure, carrying approximately 95% of India's international bandwidth to Europe, Africa, and West Asia.

Experts from the Takshashila Institution warn that this density creates a “critical vulnerability.” While cable architecture allows for some rerouting through other landing points like Chennai or Kochi, a simultaneous accidental or deliberate disruption of multiple cables could cause severe performance degradation. Such delays could impact essential services, including banking, stock exchanges, government networks, and cloud providers. AI infrastructure is noted as being particularly sensitive to these potential disruptions due to its reliance on high-volume, high-speed data transfers.

The Broadband India Forum (BIF) notes that India has only 21 cable landing stations, representing about 1% of the approximately 1,900 active or planned stations globally. While Mumbai remains a central hub due to its established ecosystem and technical talent, industry leaders acknowledge that this high level of concentration is a risk that must be addressed.