The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) project to widen the drain and upgrade the footpaths ahead of the monsoon on the busy and arterial Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Road has rendered hundreds of phone lines of the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) dead for a fortnight. The problematic stretch lies just outside MTNL's Ghatkopar office and Ghatkopar Seva Sangh along the LBS Road.

Sources said the allegedly reckless civic authorities have not been paying heed to requests from MTNL officials to proceed carefully with digging work, and have had MTNL teams posted round-the-clock to look after the cables.