Cable TV operators and internet service providers in Kolkata have drawn up a plan to remove defunct overhead wires from several arterial roads from Monday, operators said.
Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has asked the operators several times to ensure overhead cables are tied in an orderly fashion and remove the ones that are defunct.
But despite repeated appeals, defunct cables are yet to be removed from many stretches. At a number of places, dangling cables are not only an eyesore but they pose a threat to commuters.
On Monday, removal of defunct cables will start on Chittaranjan Avenue in central Kolkata and Sarat Bose Road in the south.
The multi-system operators (MSOs) and Internet service providers had a meeting with the KMC on Friday, where they laid out a plan for the removal of defunct overhead cables.
“Work to identify defunct cables is going on in full swing across many stretches. On Monday, we will take up work on CR Avenue and Sarat Bose Road. On several other stretches, work will start on Tuesday,” said Tapash Das, a joint secretary of the All Bengal Cable and Broadband Operators United Forum.
One of the two stretches where work will begin on Monday is from the Galiff Street-BT Road crossing in north Kolkata to the Exide crossing, via CR Avenue.
The other stretch is from the Southern Avenue-Sarat Bose Road crossing to the Exide crossing, via Minto Park in the south.
The other stretches selected for the removal of the overhead mess are MG Road and Hazra Road.
“We have planned to remove defunct cables from several kilometres of roads. We will snip the defunct cables and keep them in bunches beside the roads. The snipped cables will be removed in a day or two,” Das said.
Sandip Ranjan Bakshi, mayoral council member-in-charge of the electricity department, said the KMC would like to see whether the operators really wanted to remove the cables or were making false promises.
“We may have to take the harsh decision of snipping some cables if we realise that operators have made empty promises,” he said.
KMC officials said the civic body had so far refrained from snipping cables itself because that could have led to snipping of some live cables, causing disruption to internet or cable TV services to some homes.
This newspaper has reported several times how the mess of overhead cables pose a threat to pedestrians and motorists. The low-hanging cables make it difficult to walk along footpaths in some places.
Cables are also found strewn on roads. They get entangled in the wheels of motorcycles, leading to accidents.
KMC has built underground ducts on either side of Harish Mukherjee Road for operators to lay cables. Work to take the cables underground is nearing completion, an official said.
KMC officials said it was not immediately possible to build underground ducts along all roads, so the focus for now would be on removal of defunct overhead cables.
