Darjeeling, May 6: Lack of Internet connectivity for the past five days has put both tourists and residents in a fix.

Business took a nosedive as cyber café owners in the town were forced to turn away customers. “Apart from selling some computer accessories, we have not been able to conduct any business in the past week. The proceedings from the sale of such items is minimum since our major revenue generator has always been through the Internet,” said Rajesh Singh of Cyberdyne Computers.

Though almost all cyber cafes here have switched over to Direct Internet Access System (DIAS) from the normal dial-up connection, the DIAS failed ever since a few “cards burned” out at Darjeeling telephone exchange.

K. N. Karjee, the divisional engineer of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, said: “The problem is because of some technical hitch. Some cards have burned out. We had to get them from outside for replacement. An expert from Siliguri is expected tomorrow to fix up the problem. We hope the condition will improve then.”

The dial-up connection too has been erratic over the past few weeks.

The connectivity problem has struck a discordant note with tourists, especially the foreigners. “We have not been able to communicate with our families for quite some time. We hope the connectivity will be restored tomorrow as things like this do not speak highly of a tourist destination,” said Ari Pickering, a resident of Melbourne, Australia.