Gaya, May 24: The landline connections of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) in Gaya has come down to 20,000 against the earlier functioning strength of about 88,000 barely seven years ago.

Several reasons have been cited behind such a high number of disconnections in landline services but the primary cause has been cable cutting in the process of widening of roads and construction of drains.

General manager (telecom district) R.P. Tripathi told The Telegraph, services to consumers using landline connections in five districts — Gaya, Jehanabad, Aurangabad, Nawada and Arwal — have been affected because of cutting of underground cables. “Machines being used for digging the ground for road construction damage the underground cables. Earlier, when men carried out the construction work, it did not cause so much damage. The matter has been reported to the road construction department officials. We have requested them to inform us in advance about the digging work in an area. In that case, we can send our employees for identification of the spot where underground cables are present. However, the requests have failed to draw the attention of the officials concerned,” he said. The percentage of disconnections because of non-payment of bills is very low, the officer added.

Some consumers who gave up their landline connection said they were fed up with the poor service. Rajiv Kumar Sharma, a bullion trader at Tower Chowk area, said: “The landline connection was often disrupted because of some reason or the other. “Ultimately, I decided to surrender the connection and switched to BSNL cellphone service. However, even that service was not satisfactory and so I had to take the connection of a private company as an alternate arrangement,” he said.

Regarding the cellphone service, the officer said most landline users have switched to their cellphone service. “There are more than 2.84 lakh cellphone users of BSNL, including around 4,000 post-paid users. To ensure proper network for cellphone connections, 185 base terminal stations of 2G and 35 stations of 3G service were installed in all the five districts,” Tripathi said.

Road construction department officials, however, refused to take the blame.

Executive engineer of road construction department number 1, Gaya, Sanjay Kumar said: “The BSNL is supposed to lay cables at least one metre below the ground. We normally dig 50cm below the ground for road construction. If the BSNL cables are placed at the right position, the problem can be averted. Besides, we carry out construction work during the night to avoid traffic congestion. Thus, BSNL would not be able to send its employees for the identification of the spot.”