Title - Metro: Bengaluru disconnected

BMRCL construction work near Vidhana Soudha brings down 4,000 telephone lines in surrounding areas, confirms service provider BSNL

Bengaluru: Parts of Central Business District, including Infantry Road, Queens Road and the entire Shivajinagar area have had no phone connectivity over the past week.This, it turned out, was caused by the ongoing Namma Metro work near Vidhana Soudha and GPO. Officials from BSNL Telephone House on Cubbon Road confirmed that 4,000 lines in all were damaged.Many lines have been damaged and although restoration work was to be finished in three days, the problem continues to persist in some of the busiest parts of the city. Officials, however, say that all lines have been restored.“The problem first began last Wednesday,” said Venkatraman A, who lives off Queen’s Road. “When we placed a complaint, we were told that the lines would be fixed in a day.”Several consumers confirmed this, saying that they only received vague responses, in a part of town that is unusually blessed as far as utilities are concerned. “Phone lines in this part of town are usually fixed in a day, if there is a problem, which is quite rare in itself,” said Anuradha M, who lives off Infantry Road, very close to the construction site. “My phone has been out of order for a week.”

However, sources at BSNL confirmed that the lines have been down for a week now and that the restoration work is nearly complete. “It began when the JCB machines began digging up the ground near the BSNL office, exposing the phone lines,” said a source, on condition of anonymity.

“Several parts of the town have been affected by this, extending from Shivajingar to HAL,” she said. At the site itself, the ground surrounding the exposed cables is still being dug up, this time under the supervision of a BSNL employee.

“The work is complete now,” he said reassuringly, also on condition of anonymity. “We have been fixing this problem for five days so far and about 5,000 lines have been damaged,” he revealed, upping the previous estimate by a 1000.

“The whole of Shivajinagar and areas surrounding Queens Road and Infantry Road have been the worst hit,” said the official, gesturing to the digging work taking place around him. “We are supervising the work now, to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.” Officials from BMRCL did not respond to this issue.