Clogged drains: Blame cable layers

The private optic fibre cable (OFC) laying companies who laid cables inside the
sanitary pipelines, choking the flow of sewage, according to the Bangalore
Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB).

Optic fibre cables were found laid inside sanitary pipelines near Sri Jayadeva
Institute of Cardiology, Mico Layout, and Banashankari. Shocked, BWSSB officers
are now checking out other localities.

The Board has filed complaints with police at the Thygarajanagar, Shastrinagar,
Basavanagudi, BTM Layout and Indiranagar police stations against telecom and
infotech providers who laid the OFC in order to increase the bandwidth for
their customers.

Since the private companies have taken permission from the Bruhat Bangalore
Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to lay the pipelines, the Board has asked BBMP to
provide the list of all the companies that have sought permission to lay
cables, said BWSSB chairman P B Ramamurthy. 

“We were receiving many complaints about clogged drains; the recent
incident at Defence Colony in Indiranagar is also due to cable being inserted
inside sanitary pipelines. At many places, the sanitary pipes were also found
damaged,” he said.
Serious action will be taken against the companies that have damaged civic
facilities in the City, he said.

Water tariff hike

On the increase in water tariff, Ramamurthy said that, they had proposed for a
hike in water tariff and a report was submitted to the Urban Development
department. 

“The department has asked for more clarification and to rework on our
calculations and observations. However, a more detailed report will be
submitted to the department shortly after which the water tariff hike will be
decided,” he said.

With the hike in power tariff recently, BWSSB alone has to bear an additional
Rs 30 crore for payment of its electricity bills, he added.