PMC’s road-digging work downs telephone lines in parts of Pune
Bad news for BSNL users residing in and around Vetal Baba Chowk, off the Senapati Bapat Road. Not only do their backs have to suffer due to potholed and damaged roads owing to the prolonged road digging work undertaken by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), the latest casualty to the road digging work is their telephone connections.
In an official press note issued by the local office of telecom provider, BSNL has said that phone lines have been damaged due to road digging and laying of drainage pipelines around this area for over ten days. There are 600 plus BSNL subscribers in this area, and the worst-affected ones are the residents of areas such as Niljyoti, Janwadi, Gokhalenagar and MHADA colony whose lines will be down for at least two weeks.According to the deputy general manager (BSNL) P G Bhandare, “The corporation’s work has been on for a fortnight now, but we still managed to provide service to our customers. But from Thursday night, the lines were ultimately disconnected. We will not be able to provide any kind of alternate services to our users as the main lines have been cut.”
The local residents though are an irked lot. The corporation’s work is expected to last for over a week, and BSNL officials have said that they would require an additional two days to restore the damaged lines in these four areas. Both landline and broadband users will now have to wait till the corporation and BSNL authorities finish their work. Speaking to dna, Makrand Shitole a Model Colony resident said, “The authorities should look into such matter as soon as possible. We regularly pay our bills, and hence it is their responsibility to solve the problem. Besides, the authorities should give digging contract to authorise person and ensure that there should not hamper the functioning of these lines while doing such work, so that the users like me will not have to face any problem in the future.”