BSNL objects to snapping of cables by BMC

BHOPAL: The state owned telecom giant, BSNL, has objected to the repeated snapping of telephone cable during earthwork by civil contractors engaged by Bhopal Municipal Corporation for laying pipelines. About 500 telephones in Old Bhopal area were paralyzed as fibre optic cable was snapped in Royal Market area on Saturday.
Three BSNL optical fibre cables were cut by JCB machines during laying of pipelines by civil contractors.This forced chief general manager (CGM), BSNL, Bhopal to intervene as the civic officials and contractors hardly paid any heed to BSNL officials, a BSNL spokesman said on Saturday. The areas affected include Royal Market, Noor Mahal and Imami Gate among others.
Calling the incident 'insensitive' BSNL has sent a strongly-worded letter slamming the contractors employed by the BMC. The BSNL has stated that 3 cables of 200, 300 and 1000 pair were snapped. The BSNL staff has been deployed to restore the connections as soon as possible. The connections would be restored within two days.
Following the incident, when the CGM Mahesh Shukla spoke to BMC commissioner Vishesh Garhpale, the latter sent city engineer Manoj Shrivastava to the spot. Shrivastava assured BSNL that henceforth only during asphalt works on roads JCB machines would be used, otherwise all other digging work would be carried out manually so that the chances of snapping cables is minimized.
This is not the first instance when the BSNL has taken objection to digging works carried out by the BMC in areas where optical fibres are laid.
On July 16, last year, BSNL was irked with the BMC for not informing their officials while carrying out digging in areas where optical fibres were laid. Two cables had snapped at Lalghati Crossing. One of the cables was of 400 pairs while the other was 100 pairs affecting around 500 telephone connections in Lalghati, Vijay Nagar and Rizwan Bag.