From The Hindu Archives, March 11, 1976: STD on 8 routes inaugurated

New Delhi, March 10: The Posts and Telegraphs Department today introduced eight subscriber trunk dialling routes and 13 “no delay service routes”, besides adding 12,500 lines to various telephone exchanges in the country to mark the centenary of the invention of telephone by Alexander Graham Bell.

The Union Minister of State for Industry and Civil Supplies, Mr. A.C. George, inaugurated STD between Delhi and Trivandrum by speaking to the Kerala Home Minister, Mr. K. Karunakaran. Mr. K.C. Pant, Union Minister for Energy, speaking to the Gujarat Governor, Mr. K.K. Viswanathan inaugurated STD between Delhi and Gandhinagar.

Besides, Mr. K. Raghuremiah, Union Minister for Works, Housing and Parliamentary Affairs, inaugurated extension of the Janpath IV exchange of Delhi telephones by 800 lines.

Presiding over the function, the Union Minister for Communications, Mr. Shankar Deyal Sharma, said that a telex exchange at Jodhpur and a trunk automatic exchange at Ambala were also being commissioned to-day.

Mr. Sharma said that the establishment of STD between Delhi and Trivandrum and Delhi and Gandhinagar was part of the scheme to connect Delhi with all the State Capitals.

By the end of 1976, all the State Capitals, except the four in the eastern sector, would be connected to Delhi.

He also said that by the end of the current month, the P and T department proposed to provide 1.2 lakh new telephone connections. In the remaining years of the plan, it was proposed to provide over six lakh new telephone connections.