Time to bury the cables dangling dangerously in Bengaluru Premium

Dangling dangerously across Bengaluru city, Optic Fibre Cables (OFCs) are a menace that simply refuses to go away despite years of trying to push them underground. A whopping 2,336 km of illegal cables now hang from trees, electric poles and other public infrastructure, making it all a messy safety concern, a blot on the city’s urban aesthetics and a system gone completely wrong.

Dangling dangerously across Bengaluru city, Optic Fibre Cables (OFCs) are a menace that simply refuses to go away despite years of trying to push them underground. A whopping 2,336 km of illegal cables now hang from trees, electric poles and other public infrastructure, making it all a messy safety concern, a blot on the city’s urban aesthetics and a system gone completely wrong.

The issue had triggered widespread outrage, when an electric pole crashed on a college student in August 2023 leaving her grievously injured with 35% burns in the city’s Suddaguntepalya. A concrete mixer truck had pulled the illegal cables attached to the pole. A similar accident in Kadubeesanahalli had a 23-year-old man trapped under a fallen pole, enmeshed in a labyrinth of cables.

This apparent disregard for public safety continues unaddressed while smart city roads are designed with underground utility ducts specifically intended to take these cables. The Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company Limited (Bescom) had asked Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and cellular operators to take out illegal cables linked to electric poles by July 8. That deadline has come and gone with a solution nowhere in sight.

But the cellular operators say they are all for taking the cables underground if there is a proper system in place. Preferring anonymity, the spokesperson for one of the operators has this to say: “In many areas, the operators did take the required approval to go underground. But in several places, they are not allowed to dig due to the ongoing Smart City project works.”

The operators, the spokesperson contends, are not looking to cut costs. “It makes more sense to take the official approval than going overground and paying the penalty. It is way more costly, and no operator wants to do that since it affects their brand value too. What we want is a system that is properly ironed out.”

However, local TV networks often prefer to bypass the costly underground route and take the overhead route, over houses, trees and electric poles. The ugly mess of wires and cables even alongside fully completed Smart city roads is symptomatic of a problem that runs deep. Low-hanging cables have been particularly dangerous to motorcycles, a risk aggravated by poorly lit streets.

But Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Engineer Lokesh Mahadevaiah is not ready to absolve the ISPs. “Local networks are only a small portion of these wires and cables. Most of them are attached to the ISPs. When we cut those cables, OFC-linked services are the ones that get affected,” he points out.