As transmission system of Circus Exchange lay in tatters, 64,500 telephone lines, 12,000 broadband lines, 1,600 lease lines and 60 important business establishments connected by ISDN primary route access are out of service at present. Circus is the main exchange connected with 57 switching nodes. The main areas that come under this exchange are Park Street in the north, AJC Bose Road, Bondel Road and Picnic Garden in the south, EM Bypass in the east and Jawaharlal Nehru Road in the west.

Meanwhile, fire tenders continued to douse the flames on Wednesday morning and preliminary investigation has pointed to a possible short circuit at the BSNL mother station at 10/2, Hungerford Street. While restoration work will start on Thursday morning, authorities said the whole process would take seven days. They fear a loss of Rs 1 crore every three days till the time the repair work is completed. Already, the capital loss of Calcutta Telephones is Rs 1 crore.

“We hope by next Wednesday night, we will be able to partially restore communication at least in the business houses,” said S K Chakravarty, CGM, Calcutta Telephones.

According to Chakravarty, critical telephone lines, including the ones installed at media entities, are being given immediate support by Fixed Wireless Telephone service. As a temporary measure, corporate network services (used by business houses, consulates, hospitals) are being diverted through other main switching nodes of Calcutta Telephones till the next 24 hours.