Fire at BTCL building snaps 80,000 phone lines,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

Around 80,000 land phone lines were instantly out of order when a fire broke out at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL) office in the capital Monday morning.

Immediately after the fire started at the BTCL office on Manik Miah Avenue around 5:00am, all the telephone lines under its five exchanges got disconnected, said Mir Morshed, director of the BTCL.

Telephone services in Prime Minister’s Office, Mohammadpur, Tejgaon, Agargaon, Karwan Bazar, Farmgate, Sewrapara, Kazipara areas and a big portion of Dhanmondi were snapped following the incident, the BTCL official said.

Most of the telephone lines however were restored by 11:45am, he said.

The BTCL authorities will be able to restore the rest of the lines by Tuesday, Mir Morshed told .

Nazma Akter, an officer of Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters, said the fire originated from an electric short circuit on the ground floor of the five-storied building.

On information, eight fire fighting units from the headquarters and Mohammadpur fire services put out the blaze after two and a half hours of frantic efforts, she said.