KMC to survey more roads where overhead wires can be shifted
In a bid to clear the clutter of overhead wires in the city, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is conducting a survey on city roads where overhead power cables can be taken through underground cable ducts while no new permission is being granted for laying overhead cables.
Millennium Post on June 24 reported that KMC has already started a project whereby such wires in a total of 15 city roads are being shifted to an underground cable duct and has also instructed other agencies to whom a particular cable belongs, to attach stickers to that wire for identification.
Presently, it has been decided in an MMIC meeting that the civic body will start a survey at more roads where such cable ducts can be laid.
This will find out if more such cable ducts can be laid under the footpaths.
About 800 km of stretch will be surveyed which will comprise more than 30 arterial roads, it is learnt. Some of the roads are CIT Road, APC Road, SN Banerjee Road, Ballygunge Circular Roads etc.
The pilot project that KMC has already taken up is being implemented in two phases. In the first phase, five roads have been selected where wires are being shifted underground and in the next phase 10 roads have been selected. The five roads in the first phase of work are Belvedere Road, Alipore Road, Judges Court Road and Baker Road.
Meanwhile, the KMC has stopped permitting any new applications for laying overhead cables. Such wires, as per KMC, not just pave the way for visual pollution but also create a risk of electrocution when
after storms many of these
lay strewn on the roads. At times the sagging wires often get snapped when it gets stuck to a truck or lorry that is passing below it.
KMC has also asked other agencies whose wires are running overhead to ensure they are tied up neatly. “Presently, you won’t see wires sagging and hanging. The clutter has been cleared to some extent,” an official said. It was pointed out that KMC has also instructed the agencies concerned to ensure there is one wire per pole. The official highlighted that presently agencies have also been asked to attach stickers to the wires belonging to them for easy identification so later there are no problems when it is shifted underground.
