Telephone numbers of 812, 911, 912 and 913 series under the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar exchange were snapped when a primary cable at Green Road near Panthapath crossing was cut accidentally during a road repair, Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) officials said.

Divisional Engineer of the exchange Mir Kasir Uddin Iqbal told The Daily Star that the primary cable department of the BTTB could not start the restoration work as it is yet to obtain the permission for road digging from the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC).

An application has been submitted with the department concerned of the DCC in this regard, he said.

"We will start restoration work as soon as the permission is available and hope to restore the lines within the shortest possible time," Iqbal added.

"It is too bad that telephones are dead for over a week," said one angry subscriber. The BTTB is paying little attention to its subscribers, he complained.

Some subscribers said they had contacted the telephone complaint office of the area but failed to get cooperation from the officials in restoring their telephone connections.

Even Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is annoyed with the dilly-dallying of BTTB officials.

She directed the BTTB officials concerned last week to restore the telephone connections as soon as possible.