A project to insulate you from electrical accidents

 The City is likely be rid of electric wires hanging by balconies of houses on narrow roads and those jutting out of junction boxes precariously in slums in about six months, when Bescom’s Rs 350-crore project to insulate all high-tension and low-tension wires is expected to be complete.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Ramesh Kumar, General Manager (Procurement), Bescom said: “The project was taken up in June last year and the contract has been awarded to a private firm which has completed a lot of work.

“According to our estimate, the project will be completed in the next six months or by the year-end.”

Early in 2012, the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) had issued a directive to all electricity supply companies, including Bescom, to take up the insulation project.

“Following up on that, we had identified places facing such problems and initiated the project,” a source said.

Preventive measure

Another official, while conceding that the number of accidents being caused due to non-insulated wires was a concern, said the decision to implement the project was not only because of the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission  direction, even Bescom had been contemplating various measures to prevent such incidents. In the first half of 2012 alone, 17 people lost their lives and as many as 32 such accidents were reported.
In the last 10 years, 1,822 humans and 637 animals were reported to have been involved in such accidents (due to electrocution).

Of these, 963 citizens and 80 Bescom employees lost their lives, with several more being injured seriously.

Officials said Bescom had several programmes to create awareness on safety and that people should also be careful about the precariously hanging wires while constructing houses and other buildings.

“A lot of buildings in the City have been constructed in violation of rules. Several of them do not have the required no-objection certificates from the Bescom; there are many reasons for the accidents to occur,” an official said.

Bescom, through this project, would eliminate a lot of such incidents, he added.
Sources said the project also ruled out the possibility of people drawing power from lines illegally.


Accidents 02-03  03-04   04-05   05-06   06-07  07-08  08-09  09-10  10-11  11-12  12-13*
Fatal    72     82     119    130    110    107    86    102    108    110        17
Non-fatal    95     76    93    64    84    81    76    78     92    99       11