The ugliness and potential dangers of overhead cabling across Calcutta are strikingly absent in Hidco-built New Town, where a network of underground conduits for various service providers runs along thoroughfares, dividers, cycle lanes and pedestrian pathways.

According to Debashis Sen, the chairman and managing director of Hidco, this underground network was integrated into New Town’s infrastructural landscape long before the first residents of the township moved in. “We have been strict in enforcing the policy of no overhead cabling in the planned areas of New Town,” he said.

Salt Lake is going the New Town way — the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation announced last week that all overhead cables would have to be routed underground — but much of the city remains entrapped in an overhead maze that adds to the hazards of the concrete jungle.

Firefighters sent to the Traders Assembly building in Gariahat that caught fire early on January 20 had their operation delayed by an assortment of cables tied to grilles or hanging from the façade of the five-storey structure.

When Bagree Market in central Calcutta was ravaged by flames last September, the fire brigade could not use a skylift because of cables in the way.

In New Town, there are demarcated underground corridors for power, television, broadband and landline cables. If and when there is a line fault, service providers can lift the conduit hatches and pull out the cables they need to repair.

Besides being convenient and safe, the underground conduits ensure that New Town’s impressive skyline is not marred by the familiar cobweb of cables elsewhere.

A cable conduit with multiple access points runs beneath this walkway near the New Town clock tower

A conduit circuit beneath the divider of the Major Arterial Road Pictures by Snehal Sengupta

A senior official of Hidco said conduits with adequate space had been created in all three action areas of the township, leaving no scope for cable television, television and multiple-system operators to take their optic fibre cables through any other route.

The conduits are at a depth of around a metre with access hatches and junction points every 10-20m. The New Town Telecom Infrastructure Development Corporation, a subsidiary of Hidco, is responsible for their maintenance. “Cable television, telecom and multi-system operators pay rent for using the conduits,” Sen, who is also the additional chief secretary, said.

Vigilance and enforcement have ensured that compliance is high. “If our vigilance teams find any cable tied to a lamp post or a tree, they cut it. Checking is frequent,” the Hidco chief said.

Regular meetings and interactive sessions are held with service providers and residents to raise awareness about the risks overhead cabling pose.

In January 2018, an 18-year-old man motorbike rider died in an accident caused by his two-wheeler getting entangled in a heap of cables lying on a flank of the Park Circus bridge.