Drive to clear city skyline from mesh of overhead wires starts

Kolkata: Following direction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a major drive would be initiated on restoring Kolkata's skyline by removing the mesh of overhead wires and cables from Monday.

Decision has been taken to give stress on underground laying of fibre cables and a pilot project for the same has been taken up on the entire 2.63 km stretch from Rabindra Sadan to Hazra Road where all overhead wires will be replaced with underground fibre cables.

A high-level meeting in this regard held at Nabanna in of Kolkata Municipal Corporation's (KMC) Chairman Board of Administrators Firhad Hakim, Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi, Commissioner of KMC Binod Kumar and Commissioner of Kolkata Police Soumen Mitra. Representatives of all six MSOs from Kolkata, cable TV operators and internet service providers (ISPs) attended the meeting.

It has also been decided that KMC, CESC, Kolkata Police along with cable operators' association will prepare a list of the roads (on priority basis) across the city to initiate the drive from Monday onwards. The defunct wires will be removed.

"The civil work of creating underground tunnel on Harish Mukherjee Road is complete. All ISPs and MSOs have been urged to lay their cables by Tuesday, else strict steps would be taken if overhead wires are spotted in the area from Wednesday onward," said Hakim after expressing her annoyance over the concerned agencies for not clearing the mesh despite holding 30 meetings at the KMC in the past few years. A detailed report on removing the mesh of overhead wires in Kolkata will be handed over to the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister Chandrima Bhyattacharya for implementation of the same in all towns in the state.

Tapas Kumar Das, Joint Convenor of All Bengal Cable TV and Bradband Operators United Forum, said: "Earlier the mesh were cleared on the entire 4.5 km stretch from Ruby to Garia, Alipoire Road, Judges Court Road and parts of SP Mukherjee Road and Asutosh Mukherjee Road. The mesh of defunct overhead cables on DL Khan Road, Judges Court Road and Alipore Road will be removed initially."

"The work will be carried out by taking precautionary measures to ensure that both internet and cable TV services remain unaffected," he said. The state government is also taking necessary initiative to provide vaccines to all workers of cable TV operators.