The Times of India 15.02.2013
BMC wants firms to lay cables by boring holes, not digging roads
MUMBAI: The BMC, which has registered an FIR against five utility companies for allegedly illegal digging
on Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road, has refused to change its decision of
not granting them trenching permission until they compensate for the
losses caused by the unauthorized laying of cable ducts on the stretch.
Moreover, the civic body has decided to set another condition before
allowing any utility firm to dig roads in the city.
In a bid to check the gradual deterioration in the condition of roads that are dug open, the BMC
now insists that the companies adopt a new technology, the Horizontal
Drilling Technology (HDT), which will apparently cause less harm to the
surface. With this technology, the entire road does not have to be dug
up; instead, a firm can drill bores on the surface and pass ducts
through them. “While granting permission for large-scale digging, we are
thinking of asking the firms to use HDT. We are in talks with utility
companies. Open-surface digging causes a lot of physical stress to a
road, which is not even reinstated properly, and that reduces its life
span,” said a senior civic official.
Utility firms are,
however, resisting the move because they feel that the proposed process
will push up the cost manifold; according to a source, whether the firms
pay the BMC a digging fee like earlier or they themselves relay a road,
as mandated by a new directive, the amounts would be much less than
that spent under HDT procedure. This, the source said, was because the machine needed for the technology was very expensive.
The BMC’s recent circular saying that from March, utility firms
themselves will have to fill the trenches they dig and that the civic
body will not appoint a contractor to do so has started a dispute. As
the firms willthemselves have to relay roads after a project, they will
not have to pay the BMC any trenching fee.
Experts, however,
said the BMC could not shirk its responsibility of reinstating dug roads
as there was no guarantee that a utility firm concerned would do the
job properly. “When contractors are appointed to reinstate dug
stretches, a three-year period is set for them. Within that guarantee
period, if the road starts showing signs of wear and tear, then the
contractor has to repair it again. But this new circular gives no such
guarantee,” said Samajwadi Party corporator Rais Shaikh.
Also
caught in the digging controversy are five utility firms, against which
the BMC has registered an FIR and sent a circular for unauthorized
laying of cables. The circular was issued after the civic body found
that Tulip Telecom,
Reliance Communication and Tata Tele Services installed ducts in
trenches for which the M-East ward office had granted permission not to
them but to Tata Power Co Ltd and Mahanagar Gas Ltd. Due to the unauthorized laying of cables, each company has caused the BMC a loss of around Rs 2.97 crore.
