BMC's pre-monsoon work 'kills' MTNL lines on LBS Road in Ghatkopar

A resident said the MTNL cables were removed and kept aside when underground work was happening just near the Ghatkopar Seva Sangh

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) project to widen the drain and upgrade the footpaths ahead of the monsoon on the busy and arterial Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Road has rendered hundreds of phone lines of the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) dead for a fortnight. The problematic stretch lies just outside MTNL's Ghatkopar office and Ghatkopar Seva Sangh along the LBS Road.

Sources said the allegedly reckless civic authorities have not been paying heed to requests from MTNL officials to proceed carefully with digging work, and have had MTNL teams posted round-the-clock to look after the cables.

A resident said the MTNL cables were removed and kept aside when underground work was happening 50 metres from the Ghatkopar West police station, just near the Ghatkopar Seva Sangh. The resident alleged that a fortnight ago, someone flicked 20 metres of the wire, disrupting hundreds of landline connections.

Dead or erratic

Manoj Shah, a local said, "While many of the phone lines have been dead, several others are erratic. The problem has persisted for quite some time and has been a matter of great inconvenience. We have complained repeatedly, but there seems to be a major problem."

Deepak Gurjar, who works at a shop along the stretch, has also complained of his Wi-Fi connection becoming erratic. But he said there was no point complaining to MTNL officials as they say everything is fine.

JM Meshram, the area in-charge for MTNL, acknowledged the problem. "BMC's digging work is going on, which has damaged a number of cables. However, looping work is in progress and things should be rectified soon," he told mid-day.

"Even this [Wednesday] morning BMC contractors came up with a JCB excavator and started further work. We had to depute three people from our team to set things right. We are doing our best," he added.

BMC says

Meanwhile, the local BMC ward officials said the work was being carried out by the roads department, as is the usual practice for pre-monsoon activities. A civic official said they usually coordinate with MTNL during such work and will have to check what went wrong this time.

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