Aurangabad, July 12:
Around 600 telephones, apart from 27 of Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), are defunct for the past couple of months. The JCB, pressed by the contractor to dig out the pits, hit the telephone cable in May 2021.
It may be noted that the widening and construction of the road along with the nullah passing through the Gomtesh Market is underway by the Maharashtra Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). The construction is going on near Aushadhi Bhavan. It is going on at a snail's pace. The construction of the bridge got started three months ago. Later on, it was left incomplete. As a result, the residents and businessmen of the area are facing the burden. The contractor was digging pits for the bridge when the cable got damaged. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) tried to repair the damaged cable but was in vain. As a result, the services of 600 telephones in the vicinity and AMC's 27 telephones got disrupted.
The telephone service of AMC's Disaster Management Control Room also got defunct. The control room functions in three shifts, but due to the non-functioning of the telephones, the staff just visit the room and perform their duty of eight hours. Not a single call relating to rainfall has been registered in a couple of months.
The assistant commissioner Vikrant Darade said, " The AMC corresponded with the DoT to restore the functioning of the telephones, but there are no results. We had even sent an employee in person to DoT then also the telephones had not been repaired."