KARACHI - Thousands of PTCL telephone lines are lying dead across the City due to various faults in the underground cable network. Despite repeated complaints by the consumers, telephone lines are not being repaired and the handsets are lying out of order for the past few months, The Nation learnt on Saturday. Informed sources said that number of complaints had been increasing day-by-day as the solutions were not being sorted out. They said: "Due to non restoration of the cable faults, PTCL is facing the loss of around Rs25 crore monthly in the head of collection of bills. Just few months ago, Rs1 billion was collected in the head of PTCL bills." Currently, where GSM companies are in the mainstream, PTCL has about 1 million consumers across the City, but it doesn't seems that it will continue to flourish with having such problems in its pocket. A PTCL spokesman said, "Certain areas of the City have been dug up for development purposes. We have sent notices to the municipal corporation and DHA in this regard. However, the said developmental projects have been completed except the ones that are underway in Defence area, but still the telephone lines are dead and the service is being provided only in specific areas by the concerned department." It is pertinent to mention that PTCL had itself closed the lines of thousands of consumers on non-payment of bills. The worst affected areas where telephone lines are lying out of order include Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Defence, Shah Faisal Colony, Malir, Korangi, North Karachi, Nazimabad and various other areas of the City. The affected consumers said that after the privatisation of PTCL, the performance of the company was declining rapidly, but the authorities concerned did not take any notice. Inside sources disclosed that on one distribution point, 9 telephone lines have been given to the subscribers, but currently 4 out of 9 lines are off. No wonder, people are compelled to use cell phones because of such complexities in PTCL.