Nagpur post offices are facing delays in booking Diwali parcels after repeated damage to BSNL underground cables during road excavation and widening work disrupted internet connectivity and slowed India Post servers, increasing waiting times for customers.
The disruption comes as residents send sweets and gifts to family members in other cities ahead of Diwali. At the General Post Office, Savitha Landge, 57, waited for nearly 30 minutes to send a parcel to her son in Mumbai before postal staff told her that the server was down.
Sources in the Nagpur division of India Post said the department relies on BSNL for internet connectivity. Frequent interruptions have affected transactions, including parcel processing and the uploading of customer details. The problems are particularly disruptive during the seasonal rush, when post offices handle a higher volume of bookings.
BSNL personnel told The Times of India that cable damage during construction and excavation work was a recurring issue. Contractors using heavy machinery often fail to adequately account for underground utility lines, officials said. The damage can interrupt connectivity at facilities that depend on the network for routine public services.
BSNL officials also pointed to the age of some of the infrastructure. Several cables were laid 20 to 25 years ago, making them particularly vulnerable during road-widening projects, according to the report. The combination of ageing underground networks and active excavation has created repeated risks for connectivity across affected locations.
Network performance may also be affected by factors other than physical cable damage. BSNL personnel said excessive load on servers and too many nodes connected to a single network connection could contribute to slow internet speeds and connectivity problems. The report did not establish how much of the disruption was attributable to each factor.
India Post has provided employees with dongles as an alternative connectivity option, but the backup has offered only limited relief. Dongles may help staff connect to the internet, but they cannot resolve delays when the postal server itself is slow or unresponsive. As a result, customer transactions continue to take longer and queues can build up.
The episode highlights how road projects can disrupt services that residents access through physical public facilities. Excavation affects more than the road surface when buried telecommunications lines are not identified, protected or coordinated with construction activity. In this case, a connectivity failure has translated directly into slower parcel bookings at post offices during one of the busiest periods of the year.
The immediate issue for postal users is the restoration and stability of the network serving affected offices. The report does not specify a repair deadline, the number of damaged cable locations or whether a joint protocol between BSNL, India Post and road-work contractors is being introduced. Further details on repairs and coordination measures remain awaited.
