CWG work snaps DU's web, phone lines

The construction work for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games is going on in full swing in Delhi University. But the colleges are not amused. Thanks to dug up roads in the North Campus, many colleges have been facing disruption in the internet, water and telephone services for a couple of months.

DU teachers and students claim the work has been paced up but there hasn’t been any coordination between different agencies involved in the work.

At Hindu College, there has been no access to the internet for the past one and a half months. Principal Vinay Kumar Srivastava said, ‘‘We have written to the university several times regarding the unavailability of the internet in the college. But there is a problem as some cables have been destroyed in the digging happening right across the college.’’ He added, ‘‘We have recently acquired cordless modems. So we are depending on them as of now. We expect the internet may be restored within a week.’’

The construction work has affected life at Ramjas College too. Besides disruption in internet and phone lines, the staff quarters didn’t have any water supply recently. Rajendra Prasad, principal, Ramjas College, said, ‘‘The internet and phone lines have been affected badly in the last two months. In fact, a few days ago, the water supply lines of our staff quarters was cut due to the digging.’’ He added, ‘‘We had to get our own labour and get the lines repaired. None of the agencies working on construction fix it.’’

Prasad said though students are now taking their exams, disrupted internet services was still a problem for carrying out day-to-day work. The roads have been dug up on the sides all across the campus for streetscaping and widening of pavements. At some colleges like Ramjas, Daulat Ram, Shri Ram College of Commerce, the CWG work is going on even on the premises for preparing the training venue for Rugby.
Ira Pandit, who teaches in Daulat Ram College, also said some phone lines in her college and staff quarters remained dead recently. She said, ‘‘Some phones in our college and residence became dead twice. Even the water supply was affected. There have been minor problems on and off.’’

According to a teacher on the campus, the phone lines go dead for a few minutes several times during the day. ‘‘The problem is perhaps that the authorities are hastening work now. It seems there is no time to coordinate. So they dig up anywhere without checking if there are any wires underneath,’’ the teacher said. ‘‘However, it’s the part and parcel of all the developmental work going on here. We will have to be a little patient,’’ he added.