The spot where a 23-year-old woman and her nine-month-old toddler died after the former stepped on a live electric wire near Hope Farm junction in Whitefield, Bengaluru.
Credit: DH File Photo
Bengaluru: Over 40,000 spots identified as dangerous by BESCOM in its jurisdiction are yet to be fixed by the end of fiscal year 2024-25, data shows, a lapse that could imperil public safety.
Though BESCOM claims that identifying dangerous spots and fixing them is a continuous process, they have no consolidated data as of June 22. Areas with low hanging electric wires, exposed cables, deteriorated service mains, oil leakage in transformers, and damaged poles are identified as dangerous spots.
Over the last two years, BESCOM identified close to 1.72 lakh dangerous spots across its jurisdiction, with close to 1.09 lakh of them in Bengaluru alone. However, data accessed by DH showed that during these two years, BESCOM was able to rectify only close to 1.3 lakh spots, with close to 84,000 in Bengaluru.
The identification and rectification of such spots is crucial since they could be fatal.
Recently, a 11-year-old girl died after coming in contact with a live electric pole in a village near Anekal on the outskirts of Bengaluru. In November 2023, 23-year-old Soundarya and her nine-month-old daughter Suviksha were electrocuted after stepping on a live wire near Hope Farm in Kadugodi.
Senior officials from BESCOM’s quality assurance wing said works that could not be taken up during the last financial year are being taken up this year, and many of them are being rectified.
However, they did not have an estimate as to how many of the pending 40,000 spots were rectified. “It is a continuous process, we identify such dangerous spots and try to rectify as many as possible. Those that were not attended to at the end of 2024-25 are being look into this year and many more would have also been identified,” a senior official said.
Residents fear the worst
However, residents in the city were worried over BESCOM work. “For instance, we had complained that the underground cables laid by BESCOM were exposed," said Ramesh V (name changed), a resident of Kundalahalli.
"They attended to it after a while. However, they did not do a good job and the wires were again exposed within a year. Since such faults could take away lives," said Ramesh. The resident said BESCOM should "act swiftly and ensure such dangerous spots are rectified at the earliest”.
The senior official quoted above said as "BESCOM caters to a huge area and there are other maintenance works to be carried out on a daily basis, rectification may be delayed".
"But, we keep a track of all such spots and rectify them at the earliest,” the official added.