Urban News

Guess who was responsible for the clogged sanitary pipeline that allowed sewage to spew out, leaving your street stinking last monsoon?

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.