Television and internet cables are wrapped around trees and lamp posts and other roadside furniture and spill on to walkways as well as roads across all three sectors of Salt Lake.
The cables — nearly every lamp post has bundles hanging from them — criss-cross roads at dangerously low levels.
The Telegraph travelled around the township and found that many pavements have turned dangerous for pedestrians because of cables scattered on them as well as those hanging low.
Given the fact that most are black in colour, spotting them after sundown is almost impossible, many commuters complained to this newspaper.
A stretch of a pavement in DB Block, near City Centre, has multiple low-hanging cables, because of which residents and others are forced to step off the walkway and walk down the road with cars speeding past.
“We have complained on multiple occasions to the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) but no action has been taken. People here trip regularly on cables as they can’t spot them until it is too late,” said Basudeb Bhattacharya, a resident of the block.
The situation prevails on all main roads of Salt Lake. A cable-laden post lies on the pavement opposite the FD Block park, a stone’s throw from Poura Bhavan, the headquarters of the Salt Lake civic body.
A few weeks ago, an elderly resident who was waiting to cross Broadway, which connects Salt Lake with EM Bypass, near the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, suffered multiple injuries after he tripped on cables strewn across a traffic island.
A cable-laden post lies on the pavement opposite the FD Block park.
The Telegraph has written on many occasions on how cables pose a threat to pedestrians as well as motorists. An 18-year-old man riding a motorbike without a helmet died of head injuries in 2018 after his two-wheeler got caught in a heap of cables on the east-bound flank of the Park Circus bridge.
Across Kolkata, Salt Lake, Dum Dum and Howrah, bunches of cables belonging to internet service providers, multi-system operators and local cable service providers remain tied around poles.
Sometimes, the cables dangle close to the ground and in some places, they are strewn on a road or a footpath. A large number of the cables that hang overhead are defunct but are never removed.
Besides, the operators always leave some excess cable tied around a pole so that it could be used if a portion of the wire gets damaged.
“If there is a fault, it is easier to connect a new wire than locating the fault and repairing it,” said a cable operator in Salt Lake. Many Salt Lake residents fear the maze of wires would cause a loss of life any day New Town, however, has implemented a system where all television and internet cables are made to pass through underground ducts, said an official of Hidco, the administrative authority of New Town.
In Sector V, too, the removal of overhead cables has started. In Kolkata, the civic authorities have removed the overhead cables from most of Harish Mukherjee Road, but on almost every other road, thick bunches of cables are still hanging from roadside poles.
An official of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation said they were in touch with the MSOs in Salt Lake. “We have called them and asked them to remove the snipped cables. We have also removed some low-hanging cables in some places.”
Another civic official said they had planned to follow the New Town model to construct underground cable ducts. But the plan could not be implemented as it has met with stiff opposition from the representatives of MSOs.
Name dropped from medal list
A police officer’s name has been dropped from the list of those chosen for the chief minister’s police medal for “outstanding service”.
IPS officer Debasmita Das’s name had featured on the list on Wednesday. On Friday, an order was issued cancelling Das’s nomination.
She is deputy commissioner (headquarters) in Bidhannagar City Police.
Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to give away the awards on Independence Day.
The order issued by the state home department on Friday read: “In partial modification of Notification No... the Governor is pleased to cancel the nomination of Smt. Debasmita Das... for Chief Minister’s Police Medal for Outstanding Service for 2022.”
Sources said Das, an officer of the rank of superintendent of police, was apparently ineligible to receive the medal in that category, which is for officers of the rank of DIG and above. DGP Manoj Malaviyaand Das did not respond to a call or multiple text messages from The Telegraph.
Monalisa Chaudhuri