Bangalore roads plagued by illegal Optic Fibre Cable menace

Bangalore: If you are tripping on cables and falling into dug up pits on city roads, blame it on a negligent BBMP and overenthusiastic cable companies which hardly seem to care for the citizen’s safety.

Illegal laying of Optical Fibre Cables (OFCs) has been going on unhindered across the city. While Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) has been taking preventive measures, they do not seem to have dissuaded cable companies. A report that was to be submitted by mid-November on the issue, will now be ready only by the month end.

As per figures provided by BBMP, 6,140 km of OFCs are authorised and around 1,400 km are illegally laid. To lay these lines in Bangalore, over 60,000 km has been dug up of which at least 55,000 km of digging is illegal. The BBMP has also found that there are around 8,000 km of overhead cables which need to be removed.

Since 2011, several measures have been planned to keep a check on illegal OFC cables that not only cause losses to BBMP, but also affect road conditions.  As part of its campaign against illegal cables, the BBMP had started using an OTDR device to identify all such cables so that they can be disconnected. The initiative, however, died out.

Similarly in 2013 the BBMP's OFC inspection committee sent notices to 18 telecom service providers asking them to stop illegal laying of OFCs, but the practice continues unhindered in several places.

Several parts of Shanthinagar, KH Road, Bannerghatta Road, Jayanagar and other areas have been dug up for cable work. The BBMP inspection also revealed that cables had been laid in a drain in front of the BMTC bus stand in Shanthinagar and inside a drain near Billekahalli on Bannerghatta Road.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle BBMP commissioner M Lakshminarayana said: “The committee is preparing a report on this subject. We have surveyed arterial roads and sub arterial roads and found several illegally laid OFCs.

These cables were laid without the Palike’s permission, we are incurring revenue losses running into crores because of them. We have given time to
the OFC companies to fall in line before the report of the committee is submitted.”