Limited road-cutting permission stalls underground power cabling

The BBMP’s stringency in giving permissions for road-cutting has hit the pace of Bescom’s work to convert overhead cables into underground lines.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has limited the number of permissions granted for road-cutting after the poor quality of roads came under the high court’s scrutiny and criticism from the public.

Though the original deadline to complete the first two phases of laying the underground power cables was October 2021, officials said they may need one more month to complete the pending work.

“It takes days to get permission for road-cutting from the BBMP,” said a Bescom engineer working on the project. “We also must work with the BWSSB and gas companies to ensure we don’t damage their utilities.”

According to data from Bescom, 92% and 95% of the work on converting high-tension cables has been completed in Phase I and Phase II, respectively. But converting low-tension wires has been relatively slow with only 81% and 91% of the work being complete in the first two phases.

Bescom officials also attributed the delay to the pandemic restrictions. “We faced manpower shortage and difficulty in procuring materials during the pandemic,” the official said.

Bescom Managing Director Rajendra Cholan said they were planning to finish the work in a month’s time. “The works have reached final stages,” he said. “Though the pandemic and restrictions in road-cutting reduced the pace, we’re planning to finish it in a month.”

Bescom has also begun work on the third and fourth phases of the project, which it expects to complete by August. Laying power cables underground will cut down T&D (Transmission and Distribution) losses, besides ensuring an uninterrupted power supply. Bescom officials expect that the project will reduce complaints on power supply by 70%.