Ranchi, March 12: In a bid to reduce last-minute rush at telephone counters, the Ranchi telecom district of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has introduced an Integrated Voice Recording System (IVRS) from where subscribers can get information about bills and make payments.

The public sector undetaking has also decided to open five counters in the city from April to avoid rush at the main office at Shaheed Chowk.

A BSNL official told The Telegraph that the IVRS service would be available at 1501 number. “After dialling 1501, the consumer would have to dial his/her phone number. Once the number is dialled, the details of the telephone bill and outstanding amount would be made known. There is no need for consumers to rush to the telephone office to collect duplicate bills,” the official said.

A key feature of the IVRS system is that one can get the duplicate bill through fax. After dialling 1501, one has to dial the “fax” option to get the fax copy of the bill. One can pay the bill even through the photocopy of the fax at the cash counter at the CTO building (main office). As this bill will be generated by computer, it will not have the signature of the issuing official.

The BSNL has also decided to open five additional counters, which will have remote billing terminals for issue of duplicate bills. Duplicate bills will be issued from April 1 at Bariatu and Hinoo telephone exchanges.

In rest of the three exchanges, issue of duplicate bills will start by the end of April. One can deposit the bill at any of the five exchanges after collecting the duplicate bill from there. At present, the various exchanges neither issue duplicate bills nor accept payment on the basis of duplicate bills. They do not even accept payment of original bills.

The BSNL move follows after consumers lodged complaints of inordinate delay in delivery of telephone bills. This causes a huge rush of subscribers at the main office to get the duplicate bill. There was no other way of getting duplicate bills. This also resulted in last-minute rush at payment counters.

“We will try to streamline the delivery of telephone bills so that subscribers get them in time and make payments accordingly in order to avoid disconnection. We have discussed the matter with postal department officials. A good delivery system, along with a convenient system to get duplicate bills, will make bill payment a hassle-free,” the official added.