BSNL cables being stolen in tricity, services affected

Thieves have been giving BSNL authorities here sleepless nights as recently they have been striking in the tri-city and have stolen telephone cables from manholes/bridges causing "disruption in telecom services".

Thieves have been giving BSNL authorities here sleepless nights as recently they have been striking in the tri-city and have stolen telephone cables from manholes/bridges causing "disruption in telecom services".

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"Thieves and anti-social elements have been at work recently and have stolen our cables from manholes/bridges. As a result telecom services have been affected in some parts as it takes 5-7 days in the repair work," BSNL's General Manager, Chandigarh, Naresh Sharma told PTI in Chandigarh on Thursday.

He said during the past six months cables had been stolen from many parts of the tricity, which comprises of Chandigarh, Panchkula in Haryana and Mohali in Punjab.

BSNL today also alerted its subscribers through a SMS message, saying "BSNL staff doesn't carry out work during night" and asked the people to inform at 12677 number as well as the police control room in case they come across any such activity. He said last night itself thieves had stolen cables from behind the Hotel Shivalik view in Sector 17 and a FIR had been registered in the incident.

"About 800 telephones have gone dead as a result of this single incident as the copper cables were stolen. It will take nearly a week in the repair work, which is often tedious," said Sharma, who held a meeting with senior police officials here today and apprised them about the problem.

He said it was not just financial loss which BSNL had to face, but as cables were stolen it was also causing great inconvenience to the subscribers.

"Our idea of laying the cables under the manholes and bridges was that people are spared of repeated digging work which causes inconvenience to public besides being time consuming," he said.