The reason is that the exchanges of these two townships are being partially delinked from the Department of Telecommunications at Chandigarh. While the two townships were till now available on the Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) code of Chandigarh, viz. 0172, they will now have their separate STD codes.

Panchkula will be accessed on the Kalka STD code, 01733 and S.A.S. Nagar will be accessed on the Kharar STD code, 01888. Residents of Chandigarh will continue to have the facility of direct dialling for calling up any number in these two townships, but the respective code of 921 will have to be used.

The residents of Panchkula and S.A.S. Nagar will have to use the code 92172 for the calls made to Chandigarh, followed by the regular number. For instance, if a telephone number in Chandigarh is 781608, residents of S.A.S. Nagar and Panchkula will have to dial 92172-781608 to get the call connected to Chandigarh.

In this way, the townships will continue to have the facility of direct dialling for the city, without using the STD code. At present, residents of Kalka and Kharar have to use this code to get connected to the City.

The pulse rate charged for the calls, however, will continue to be the same, viz. one unit per three minutes for these townships to Chandigarh and also S.A.S. Nagar-Panchkula. For the calls made within Chandigarh, the pulse rate is one unit per five minutes.

The telephone numbers in the two townships will also undergo a slight change. While these are currently six-digit numbers, they are likely to be converted to five digit numbers.

It is being considered in the telecom circles that the first digit of the existing numbers in the township may be dropped. So if a S.A.S. Nagar number is 674238, it may become 74238. The person calling from Chandigarh will have to dial 921888-74238 to access this telephone number.

For the Panchkula telephone numbers, the Department of Telecommunications, Chandigarh, is likely to consult the Ambala Telecom Circle. This is because Kalka is in the jurisdiction of the Ambala Telecom Circle and the telephone numbering system in the district will have to be on the same pattern.

The rationale given by the department for this change is that the billing system for the STD calls made from Panchkula and S.A.S. Nagar was not uniform, leading to losses both for the subscriber and the department.

For instance, S.A.S. Nagar residents had to pay more calls made within Punjab but less for Delhi. This was because the Chandigarh STD code applied to the township. Once included in the Kharar Short Distance Calling Area (SDCA), S.A.S. Nagar residents will pay less for making STD calls within Punjab but more for calls to Delhi. On the same pattern, Panchkula residents had to pay more for calls made to Delhi but less for calls made within Punjab.

Another reason is that the digit 8 may be brought within the exchange of the City. Earlier, Zirakpur, Kharar and other adjoining areas could be accessed by prefixing the digit 8 to the respective number.

Since the department is gradually going to face a shortage of numbers to be given per connection upto the digit 7, the digit 8 may be brought within local circulation too. It is in this light that Kharar, Zirakpur and other areas are now accessed on the code scheme 92 and not 8.