Andrott, India

Andrott: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Andrott is a small inhabited island in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep, a group of coral islands located in the Arabian Sea approximately 293 kilometres west of Kochi, on India's western coast. As one of India's 26 submarine cable landing points, Andrott hosts one submarine cable, connecting it to the Indian mainland and forming part of the undersea infrastructure that links the Lakshadweep island chain to the broader national network.

The single cable landing at Andrott is the Kochi-Lakshadweep Islands (KLI-SOFC) system, an inter-island and island-to-mainland route that ties Andrott into India's coastal telecommunications fabric. This connection represents an intra-country corridor, linking remote island communities in the Arabian Sea with mainland Indian infrastructure rather than spanning intercontinental distances.

Cables Landing at Andrott

The Kochi-Lakshadweep Islands (KLI-SOFC) cable is the sole submarine cable landing at Andrott. With a total length of 1,989 kilometres and a ready-for-service (RFS) date of 2024, the system is among India's most recently commissioned submarine cable projects. All endpoints on this cable fall within India, making it an entirely domestic system connecting the Lakshadweep islands — including Andrott — to the mainland port city of Kochi. The cable's name directly references both its mainland anchor point and the island group it serves.

Regional Context

Within India's 26 landing points, Andrott sits alongside a small group of single-cable island landings, including Agatti, Amini, and Bangaram, all of which also host one cable each. This places Andrott at the less densely connected end of India's submarine cable landscape, which is anchored at the opposite extreme by Mumbai with 18 cables and Chennai with 9. Kochi, the mainland terminus of the KLI-SOFC cable, hosts 2 cables and serves as the nearest major hub to Andrott in India's submarine cable network.

Network Role

Andrott functions as a single-cable terminus, receiving connectivity exclusively through the Kochi-Lakshadweep Islands (KLI-SOFC) system. The cable enables a direct intra-national link between the remote Lakshadweep island group and the Indian mainland, with Kochi acting as the mainland gateway. This positions Andrott not as a transit or branching point, but as an endpoint in a domestic island-connectivity system.

India's 21 submarine cables land across 26 points, with the majority of international capacity concentrated at major coastal cities. Andrott's role in this network is specifically oriented toward domestic island connectivity, and its presence in the submarine cable graph reflects the geographic challenge of linking small, dispersed island communities — situated nearly 300 kilometres offshore — to mainland telecommunications infrastructure.