kolkata with cyclone amphan snapping cable tv wires across the city more than 80 of kolkatas cable homes are left with blank screens since wednesday evening it could take threefour days to restore cable connections operators who have already started restoration were staring at a financial burden of replacing the snapped cableschetla resident debjani ghosh has been calling her cable operator frantically ever since her tv went blank during the cyclone i was following the news in the middle of the storm when my connection snapped i had anticipated it and all my neighbours had the same experience while you cant blame anyone for this steps should be taken to restore the connections she said kolkata has 30 lakh cable homescable operators across the city had a tough time assessing the damage and gathering the snapped wires some have already started installing new cables but the job is turning out to be difficult with lamp posts and trees that support the cables having collapsed unless trees are removed and the posts erected cables cant be mounted on them also with the lockdown still on we dont have enough people to do the job quickly said tapash das of the ideal cable tv operators associationthe association has started replacing cables in bhowanipore and harish mukherjee road restoration has begun in tollygunge alipore new alipore and chetla too but operators are wary of the cost of restoration that could be as much as rs 500 for each subscriber our earnings have been squeezed by the a la carte system that came into effect last year we cant afford to bear any extra cost and this burden will hit us hard said dassome operators said that replacing the wires will not bring the transmission back since cables carrying the mso feed have also snapped msos on the other hand said they have started repairs too siticable said 80 of the connections will be restored by friday we hope to be able to resume the feed in 24 hours said director suresh sethia