The Hindu 09.11.2013
Corporation intensifies drive to remove cables
The Chennai Corporation has commenced a drive to remove illegal cables on streetlights in the city.
Cables
on streetlights maintained by the Corporation on GST Road, Poonamallee
High Road, Venkatnarayana Road and Triplicane High Road were removed on
Friday. Illegal cables were also removed in Anna Nagar, Teynampet,
Kodambakkam, Alandur and Adyar. A few roads in T. Nagar were covered on
Thursday.
The Corporation will gradually expand the
drive to remove underground cables that are inadequately covered and
pose a risk to motorists and pedestrians. All such cables, present on
many roads in the old city limits, will be removed in a few days,
“Many
cables that posed a risk to pedestrians and vehicles in Triplicane were
removed on Friday. The service providers should take measures to
prevent disruption of services to residents,” said Mohammad Khadar, a
resident of Triplicane.
Civic body employees who
repair non-functional streetlights have been instructed to disconnect
all cables without tags issued by the Corporation.
“The
service providers have received tokens from the Chennai Corporation. As
many as 2,000 km of cables have been tagged so far. The cables that are
not tagged will be removed,” said a Corporation official.
The civic body will also impose a fine on agencies that use its facilities to provide support for cables without approval.
The
civic body’s deadline for removal of cables was extended a number of
times earlier. Telecom service providers and cable TV operators at a
recent meeting had declared they would cooperate with the civic body in
the removal of cables and ducting of underground optic fibre cables for
road-laying work. However, the cables continue to be the biggest
challenge to the completion of a number of civic infrastructure
facilities.
A few months ago, the Corporation
completed the collection of data from telecom service providers and
cable TV operators to regulate such entities. A number of the operators
and service providers have provided an updated list of stretches where
they have laid cables. The civic body has planned to collect a revised
track rent from the operators after making changes to underground
infrastructure on bus routes and interior roads.
The
initiative will also facilitate construction of cement concrete roads in
the city. “The civic body is preparing estimates for laying 10,000
interior roads. The cement concrete roads will have at least a 1.5 feet
dimension for ducting, and telecom service providers have also been
asked to make suitable changes,” said the official.