BSNL landline, Internet lines go dead in Indiranagar

BSNL landline and broadband connections in the posh Indiranagar locality have gone dead for the last six days, inconveniencing not just the 800 families which use them but also two bank branches located in the neighbourhood.

Residents of Indiranagar, HAL Stage I, say landlines and broadband services have not been working since June 6. Lodging complaints with the BSNL has just elicited a standard reply: The BSNL is unable to detect the fault in the underground cables.

D R Prasad Gupta, a retired bank official who lives in HAL Stage I, said: “The phones went dead on Saturday. We have been calling up the BSNL and lodging complaints, but every time we were told that the staff are not able to trace the faulty cables underground. It’s been six days but no solution is in sight. These days, most of us pay our bills and do all renewals etc online. Without the Internet, it’s very difficult to manage things. The BSNL should understand this.”

The BSNL’s Deputy General Manager, Indiranagar, H S Sitaramu, said the underground cable lines had developed a snag and efforts were being made to trace them. “Just yesterday (Wednesday), our staff found that one of the six underground cables on the 100 feet road was pierced by the Vodafone staff when they were digging up the road for some repair. We have now asked Vodafone to rectify the cables as per law and it has agreed to do so after getting permission from the BBMP. Since open trenches are not allowed in Bengaluru, Vodafone has to do horizontal boring. The lines will be restored soon. As far as the banks are concerned, we have temporarily shifted their connectivity to alternative lines which are working just fine,” he added.

A staffer in the City Union Bank in Indiranagar said that there had been a problem with the phones for the last three days and the BSNL had assured to fix it in a day or two. BSNL staff said the problem had occurred because cables in the area had snapped, he added.