Fire cripples telephone links in Chennai

CHENNAI, June 23: A major fire ripped through the telephone exchange on the city’s arterial Anna Salai in the small hours this morning, causing over 30,000 telephone lines to go dead and destroying equipment worth crores of rupees. No one was injured. The blaze is believed to have been triggered by a short circuit. Lines in other exchanges were also affected by the damage to the optical fibre cable link which passed through the Anna Salai exchange. The blaze badly affected international communication, cellular and pager services, brought business activity to a halt. Alternative numbers were alloted to important government and media establishments. The Madras Stock Exchange, which had recently gone on-line, air and rail reservation systems and even the City Police Commissioner’s office were among the affected establishments.