Deccan Herald 29.11.2013
OFCs caused Rs 16,500 cr damage to City roads: Panel
The Optical Fibre Cables (OFCs) in the City
have caused a damage to the tune of Rs 16,500 crore ever since the
telecom and infotech revolution happened in Bangalore, according to a
report by Yediyur corporator N R Ramesh, who heads a special committee
to assess the irregularities in laying the OFCs in the City.
Addressing
reporters on Thursday, Ramesh said the mayor had constituted the
nine-member committee with a direction to submit the report in two
months.
“We have prepared a voluminous report comprising 4,732
pages in record time. It will be submitted to the Mayor. The report will
be tabled in the BBMP Council on Friday,” said Ramesh.
providers have used land worth Rs 10,400 crore in Bangalore and damaged
City roads for laying cables.
“Since 1999, the Palike has spent
approximately about Rs 6,000 crore on the restoration of roads, which
were damaged by the telecom firms,” Ramesh said.
In one instance, the total cost of road damage was about Rs 300 crore while the telecom firms deposited only Rs 13 crore.
He
said the BBMP had asked the telecom firms to pay a rental value of Rs
300 for laying one metre of OFCs, which they are not ready to pay
whereas in Agartala, the capital of Tripura, the telecom firms are
already paying a ground rent of Rs 260 per metre.
The total
length of cables laid in the City, including the overhead cables laid by
internet service providers and the TV channel cable operators, is about
10,000 km.
Nagapura corporator S Harish, who is also a member of
the OFC committee, said earlier the OFCs contained 12 cables but now it
has increased to 240 cables.
