Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 30: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) today said it has restored 90 out of 99 Exchanges damaged due to recent floods.
The company also said it is also considering granting rental rebate to the customers, who were affected due to non-functioning of the services.
BSNL spokesman Masood Ahmad Balla said despite submerging of the main city based exchanges about 48000 land lines were made operational in the areas which were partially affected.
“Out of 99 Exchanges, 90 have been restored in Kashmir valley for landline and broadband services. The main exchange at CTO Lal Chowk has been made operational on Monday. The exchanges at Dalgate, Rajbagh, Indira Nagar, Karan Nagar, Bemina, Narbal and Nowgam are under dewatering and cleaning stage. The arrangement of requisite equipment is being done on war footing,” Balla said.
He said out of 477, 291 BTSs have been made operational with 2G services. Coverage of BSNL mobile services is available in most of parts of the Valley.
At some places, the coverage is available with degraded voice quality and broadband facilities are being provided in phased manner with meager resources and equipment availability, he said.
The spokesman said the telecom service provider is no exception to the devastation caused by the floods as it has suffered immensely in the shape of damages to expensive and huge equipment including number of major exchanges, vital installations including GSM MSC, BSCs, BTS’ Broadband, core transmission, all electrical components including power plant, batteries, major Gen sets, many RSUs, office records and office automation equipment.
He said despite chaotic situation, the first BTS was made operational on September 8 through Satellite Media at Barzulla.
“BSNL played a vital role by providing fastest service and help people through satellite connectivity in areas like Barzulla, B.B.Cantt, Governor House, Awantipora , Pulwama, Anantnag, Kulgam etc.,” he said.
The spokesman said as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) BSNL instantly swung into action by providing free STD PCOs at various relief centres including Airport, Kashmir University campus, SKIMS Soura and SKICC. In addition, 5000 free of cost with Rs 100 preloaded talk time SIMs were distributed to the needy persons for this purpose with a validity of 10 days (from September 12 to 22).
He said simultaneously, BSNL had a challenging task of rescuing and providing some relief to officers / officials who were held up in secured accommodation at Lal chowk and other exchanges / offices with personal efforts of officers of BSNL.
CDMAS & Wimax broadband services were made operational on Monday which will cover the areas where landline and broadband services are not presently feasible.
All efforts are being made to make the complete normalization of services and we will strive to restore all services (to pre-flood condition) within 15-20 days. The work is being carried out on war -footing manner to complete at the earliest, he said.
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