The Hindu 14.12.2013
BBMP pins hopes on revenue from charges levied on OFCs
: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is
pinning all its hopes on the revenue that will come its way from charges
levied on telecom service providers, who have laid optic fibre cables
(OFC), overhead cables and copper cables in the city.
On
Friday, city Mayor B.S. Sathyanarayana, BBMP Commissioner M.
Lakshminarayan and members of the BBMP’s OFC Committee met stakeholders
of the various telecom and internet service providers. At the meeting,
sources said, a consensus was reached and service providers have now
agreed to pay the charges that would be arrived at jointly by the BBMP
and service providers soon.
According to committee
member and Yediyur councillor N.R. Ramesh, the BBMP has laid down some
conditions that the service providers are expected to follow. “Service
providers have said they will get back to us after consulting their
legal team. They have asked for some changes in the conditions, which we
will also verify with our legal team,” he said.
The
BBMP has given service providers two days’ time to declare the cables
laid by them. According to rough estimates, there are nearly 65,000 km
of OFC network, 10,000 km of overhead cables, 7,000 km of copper cables
and over 3,000 km of cables laid through the direct buried cable (DBC)
method. “After service providers declare the cables laid, we will verify
it. If there is any undeclared cable, the BBMP will take it over and
sell it in an open auction. This will be another source of revenue for
the civic body,” he said.
The BBMP has also put the
entire OFC permission and cancellation mechanism on an online platform.
“A software was developed for this. This means service providers need
not approach any BBMP office for permission. The applications will be
accessed online and permissions will be given online after requisite
inspections by officials. This is completely transparent and payment can
be made through direct bank transfers,” he added.
