Mandalay: India and Myanmar today operationalised their first optical fibre telephone link, a $7 million state-of-the-art network that will bring the two countries closer and give a boost to bilateral economic cooperation.

Watched by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Myanmar’s Communication Minister Brig Gen Thein Zaw made the first call to Indian Telecom Minister A Raja in New Delhi, applauding the quality of the project funded by India and executed by public sector Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL).

The high-speed broadband link for voice and data transmission connects Mandalay, Myanmar’s second most important commercial hub after Yangon, and the border town of Moreh in Manipur.

The two towns are separated by a distance of 500 km.

TCIL Chairman-cum-Managing Director Rakesh K Upadhyay later told PTI that the call rates between India and Myanmar are bound to fall sharply with the installation of the optical fibre link between Mandalay and Moreh.

Myanmar announced it was planning to construct optical fibre network in the entire area along its border with India which could then have another direct link also with China, Laos and Thailand.