Agartala: Agartala is set to become the third international internet gateway in the country after Mumbai and Chennai, BSNL chief general manager (NE Circle) D P Singh said on Saturday at a programme to observe Digital India Week.Union telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will launch the India-Bangladesh bandwidth connectivity programme in Agartala on July 10, he said.Singh added that an optical fibre cable from Agartala will be linked to a telecom cable company at Cox’s Bazar in south Bangladesh.The connectivity will facilitate northeastern states to be connected with reliable global telecom network, which will provide high-speed and uninterrupted telecommunication in another six months.Initially, BSNL will lease 10 GBPS bandwidth from Bangladesh’s lone submarine cable operator, Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL).Last year, Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for alternative telecom routing through Akhaura for improving telecommunication facilities in the region.The Bangladesh government agreed to the India’s proposal and Tripura would soon become the international gateway for the rest of the Southeast Asian countries.On June 5, India and Bangladesh signed the agreement with an aim to boost bilateral ties and develop a strong telecom network in Southeast Asia.Singh said the telecom ministry has sanctioned Rs 5,336 crore to BSNL to connect far-flung districts and villages of Arunachal Pradesh Assam and Meghalaya in mobile network and improve quality of service in Tripura, as well as national highways of the region.“BSNL will set up 94 Wi-Fi hotspots in Tripura, 45 in Mizoram and 44 in Meghalaya soon besides, improvement of machineries and quality of service in the northeast,” he said adding.