India’s Neighbourhood-First Space Policy? ISRO To Set Up Ground Stations For Five South Asian Countries 

As part of India’s space diplomacy, India will set up five large ground stations and more than 500 small terminals in Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Times Of India has reported.

Space diplomacy has been touted as a new tool in India’s diplomatic effort. This will be a part of its ‘neighbourhood - first’ policy to counter China’s influence in India’s backyard. The space infrastructure will help put in place applications ranging from television broadcasting to disaster management, tele-medicine, telephony and internet.

“We have an Indian firm, Alpha Design Technologies, implementing the project, which will also see 100 VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminals) connected to the ground station, taking for the first time TV broadcasting to many remote areas in Bhutan,” a source of Times Of India remarked. This is expected to counter China’s satellite tracking infrastructure in Thimpu.

The infrastructure that is being created by ISRO will be an extension of the South Asia satellite that was launched in 2017. The satellite weighs 2,230 kg during lift off and carries 12 Ku-Band transponders. It has been developed at the cost of about Rs 235 crore. The total cost of the project including the launch is about Rs 450 crore.