Hyderabad:Network glitches bug Numaish visitors

Hyderabad: Are there jammers installed in the Numaish? This question popped up in the minds of people who visited the 82nd All India Industrial Exhibition as people were seen struggling to find mobile network to make a call, digital transactions and swipe ATM card for purchasing goods. Thousands of people visiting the exhibition were put to lot of hardship due to network and technical glitches.

After hiatus of two years, a large number of people were seen flocking to Numaish this year to witness the biggest 45-day carnival in the city. According to the exhibition society, on Saturday, the exhibition sold over 73,000 tickets and more than 85,000 tickets on Sunday. However, the visitors complained regarding the lack of mobile network and other network related issues as they were facing technical glitches in card swiping and online payments.

Tamheed Fatima, a visitor at a Jaipur stall said, "I purchased clothes at the stall but was unable to pay the bill through digital transaction as I had no network and forced to do shopping with cash."

According to the stall owners during afternoon hours digital transactions and machines are working, but as the number of visitors go up; network gets jammed resulting in poor signal," said a trader. Masoor Ali, a Kashmiri Art stall, said that for getting cash, the traders are going along with the customer to an ATM machine, sometimes outside the Numaish premises for the transaction. "The ATM machines in the exhibition premises were also running out of cash and hence we are forced to go out of exhibition for transactions", he added.

Chandrashekhar, a customer, said that he wanted to purchase Lucknowi suits, but when he tried to make a digital transaction with his card, the machine failed to support.

Moreover, the visitors at exhibition grounds also raised a complaint of no mobile network. With thousands of people thronging the exhibition, people are unable to connect calls in the premises. "My daughter who is a teen lost near the games zone. When we family members tried to call her, there was no network. After tracing for some time, we had to make an announcement at the station for her," said Hiten Shah, a visitor and added that though she had a smartphone we could not make a call to her as there was no signal. This issued has to be solved by the exhibition society."

Meanwhile, the exhibition society said that In order to ensure network related issues, the society had decided to install signal towers in the premises. "The signal towers of JIO and BSNL mobile networks have been installed as of now and would be activated soon. Now, the visitors will not face difficulties regarding mobile networks," said Ashvin Margam, vice president exhibition society.