Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has decided to sue Hughes Tele.com and claim Rs 5 crore from it for allegedly damaging its cables.

According to MTNL sources, in May and June his year, Hughes Tele.com undertook massive duct and cable laying works in south Mumbai and & Andheri (east) and, in the process, damaged

MTNL’s cables "Because of this, we not only lost considerable revenue, but also incurred huge expenses in repairing the cables," an MTNL official said. He said MTNL’s protests were in vain.

President and chief executive officer of Hughes Tele.com Prakash Bajpai told this newspaper, "At three or four places, MTNL cables were damaged by mistake. But we proactively repaired them and also conducted tests to make sure that they were working once again. "We have always co-operated with MTNL, which is a giant player in the telecom sector. We exercise extreme caution while laying cab1es. We submit our drawings to the BMC and take its permission before commencing digging, just like other utilities," Mr Bajpai explained. "We are now meeting MTNL officials every week and are giving it advance notice of our digging operations," he stated. Hughes Telecom has 27,OOO lines at present and plans to expand its network to nine other cities in Maharashtra.

Courtesy: The Times of India