BSNL gets pat from Odisha Govt

Surjit Kumkar Dhal,Bhubaneswar, May 15: State Government is happy with Major Telecom Provider-BSNL as it came as “First Responder” when Odisha faced extremely severe cyclonic storm Fani on may 3.Senior Mandarins, who worked 24X7 during post-FANI operations, are appreciating the efforts of BSNL during the “Hours of Crisis”.Principal Secretary Finance Ashok Kumar Meena admits that “BSNL has stood by the State during the crisis.”

Odisha Telecom Circle, with Tele Density of 85.48 per cent  is having 3.58 crore mobile connections, and BSNL has around 17 per cent share in it.CGMT BSNL Odisha Circle Dr US Panda has been able to provide able leadership during the crisis, said senior officials.

“With huge man power deployed across the state came in handy for speeding up the network connection by BSNL”, said a senior officer of the Department of Telecommunications.Senior Deputy Director General (DDG) of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) MB Ravichandran said though other telecom providers tried to provide services, BSNL’s robust resources were utilized to resume services earlier.

Noably, the telecom Infrastructure sustained extensive damage in Puri, Khurda and Cuttack districts in the cyclone.Fani disrupted power supply and the network got affected from 8 AM onwards  in Puri and 11 PM onwards in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and other areas on May 3.

Mobile Services collapsed in these areas; however BSNL Landline was the only service available to communicate within State Secretariat.Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who reviewed the situation late in the afternoon directed officials to ensure restoration of telecom network as soon as possible.

Ravichandran, said DoT looking at the crisis allowed people with free SMS and gave permission for Intra Circle Roaming (ICR) which helped the citizens in the State to get network coverage seamlessly.With ICR in operation telecom operators merged network to ensure all citizens in the state to get network coverage seamlessly.ICR will be permitted in Puri District till end of May, sources said.

Telecom Operators, BSNL, Airtel, Jio, Vodafone-IDEA have merged to provide uninterrupted service in the cyclone affected areas, said Ravichandran.While 11 districts were affected due to FANI, Puri was worst affected and cut off in terms of telecom. Data Service and Internet Service were completely affected.