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BSE network to help quake victims

Kanchana Suggu in Bombay

Friday's earthquake that devastated Gujarat has seen assistance pouring in from various quarters across the globe. The latest to pitch in is the Bombay Stock Exchange.

BSE, which has 5,000 trader workstations in 390 cities across India, is now making optimal use of its V-SAT (very small aperture terminal) networks in Gujarat.

BSE says that it has the largest broking network in India. Fifty-eight of the 200 terminals in Gujarat are located in the quake-affected Bhuj, Jamnagar and Rajkot regions.

Though there was a loss in connectivity for only a few hours after the earthquake, connection at most of the terminals was restored immediately.

"Anyone in Gujarat can approach brokers in their area and provide information about themselves and their relatives. This information, in turn, will be posted on our Web site, http://helpline.bseindia.com," said a senior BSE official.

"We have devised an application that will allow members to feed data about survivors along with their messages to their near and dear along with contact information if any," the BSE said in a statement issued earlier.

A team from the BSE Information Systems Department has visited Gujarat to look after the connectivity at various terminals.

"We launched it yesterday. So we are still not aware of the number of people who have logged on to our site. But I'm sure it will be of great help to those concerned," says Deena Mehta, vice-president, Bombay Stock Exchange.

When rediff.com checked the site at 1400 IST on January 31, 2001, there were three people who had posted information on the BSE site.

The erathquake had caused a collapse of the telecommunications network which has only partially been restored and relatives and friends of the stricken people have been struggling to make contact.

The Complete Coverage | List of earthquake sites

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