As per the existing telecom licensing regime in India, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) establishes the orders, regulations and directions on telecommunications sector, while the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issues licenses. 

The company laying submarine cables in Indian Territorial Waters must hold a valid International Long Distance (ILD) license issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). International Long-Distance Operators (ILDOs) licensees are allowed to set up Cable Landing Station (CLS) for landing of submarine cables, governed by the regulations/orders as may be made by the TRAI from time to time.

On June 19, 2023, TRAI issued the recommendations on ‘Licensing Framework and Regulatory Mechanism for Submarine Cable Landing in India’, recommending two categories of Cable Landing Station (CLS) locations – (a) Main CLS and (b) CLS Point of Presence (CLS-PoPs).

According to TRAI, there were 17 international subsea cables (Seacom and MENA are considered seperate cables) landing in 14 distinct cable landing stations in 5 cities across India, in Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin, Tuticorin and Trivandrum, and the lit capacity and the activated capacity on these 17 international subsea cables were 138.606Tbps and 111.111Tbps respectively, as the end of 2022.  

In addition, a number of new international submarine cables are in pipeline for rollout, including MIST, IAX, IEX, 2Africa/EMIC-1, Blue-Raman, SEA-ME-WE 6, TEAS, etc. 

There are also domestic submarine cables such as the Chennai-Andaman and Nicobar Island Cable (CANI) onnecting Port Blair along with seven other Islands of Andaman & Nicobar,  and the Kochi-Lakshadweep Island (KLI) cable system for a direct communication link through a dedicated submarine optical fiber cable between Kochi and 11 Islands of Lakshadweep.  

The operators and their cable landing stations in India 

• Tata Communications owns five cable landing stations, three in Mumbai, and each in Chennai and Cochin.
• Global Cloud eXchange (formerly Reliance Globalcom) owns the Versova Cable Landing Station in Mumbai for FALCON, and Trivandrum cable landing station for WARF cable connecting Maldives and Sri Lanka to India.
• Reliance Jio owns BBG cable landing station in Chennai and AAE-1 cable landing station at Versova beach in Mumbai, is constructing new cable landing stations for its IAX and IEX cables.
• Bharti Airtel owns three cables landing stations, two in Chennai and one in Mumbai. Bharti Airtel will be landing party for 2Africa/EMIC-1 and SEA-ME-WE 6 cables.
• Sify Technologies owns cable landing station in Mumbai for MENA and GBI submarine cable systems.
• BSNL owns its first international submarine cable connecting India and Sri Lanka (BLCS) and its cable landing station in Tuticorin. The Digha Cable Landing Station in West Bengal is newly approved in May 2011 by the department of telecommunication (DoT) of India for a submarine cable project between India and South-east Asia. BNSL is expected to own the Digha Cable Landing Station. BSNL has completed the Chennai- Andaman & Nicobar Islands (A&N Islands) submarine cable system, and constructed a new cable landing station in Chennai and several stations in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
• Vodafone owns BBG cable landing station in Mumbai.
• Lightstorm acts as landing partner for Cinturion's TEAS and will build a carrier-neutral and open Cable Landing Station (CLS) to host the cable.
• IOX plans to construct a new cable landing station at Puducherry for its IOX cable.

To have a full picture about submarine cables landing in India, please read following articles by an Indian expert Mr. Suvesh Chattopadhyaya:

• Is India'a subsea cable infrastructure sufficient to support next-gen business
• New Submarine Cables to/from India – An outlook for 2019-2021
• What does it take to be Independent Infrastructure Provider (IIP) in India to develop Submarine Cable System
• Questionable State of Submarine Cables that globalizes India

According to Mr. Suvesh Chattopadhyaya's contribution, here is a complete list of submarine cables landing in India: