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Myitkina phone lines affected by armed conflict
Published on Sunday, 06 January 2013 01:28
About 60,000 phone lines are out of order since the end of December in Myitkyina, according to sources, due to the ongoing fighting between government troops and the Kachin Independence Army in Myitkyina.
Ten out of 11 communication towers have no electricity and more than 34,000 CDMA phones, 24,300 GSM phones and 2,000 land line phones are out of order, according to statistics.
Electric cables from the Malikha hydropower plant were damaged by the fighting near the plant on December 24. The plant is owned by Bukha Company under the KIO and it distributes electricity to Myitkyina and Waimaw townships.
“The communication system is dependent on electricity. It is not run by generators. The plant has generators but it is for reserve. When the electricity is cut off, the communication towers go out of order. We asked for permission to run the generators from the state government and we got it on January 2. The main tower has two generators and can run 24 hours. Others have only one generator for each and can’t run the whole day, a communication engineer from Myitkyina who asked not to be named, said.
Although Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications runs the generators to supply electricity for the communication towers to facilitate phone lines with the permission of the state government, the phone lines were out of order till the night of January 3.