Officials of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Coimbatore, have been on their toes for the last few months in restoring cables snapped during the Under Ground Drainage (UGD) works across the city.
The officials said that as the contractors used earthmovers to dig the road surface, it resulted in snapping of underground cables in many places.
But the problem proved to be at its worst in Ramanathapuram Exchange (numbers beginning with 231/232) as the works were being carried out on Nanjundapuram Road, Ramanathapuram – Puliakulam Road, Puliakulam – Lakshmi Mills Junction Road and a particular stretch of Tiruchi Road from Ramanathapuram junction.
BSNL authorities had to struggle for hours together and even days together to set right the snapped cables.
Re-laying the cables (the cost, and the revenue loss due to ‘dead’ phones), and facing the consumers proved to be a difficult task, the officials at the field level said.
They said that whenever earthmovers were pressed into service, the Corporation Engineering Wing officials and the contractor should ensure that the BSNL technical staff were present with them to identify the cable route so that damages could be minimised.
The Corporation sources said that utmost care was being taken by engineers in co-ordination with the contractor. They added that the contractors were being sensitised to prevent recurrence of such inconvenience to BSNL and its customers.
