JOIN USThe Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to erect poles for laying optical fibre cables (OFCs) overhead at 58 roads covering over 100 km across the City.
As haphazardly laid cables obstruct pedestrians and sometimes motorists too, the BBMP has decided to bring some order by facilitating poles to lay overhead cables in a proper manner.
Sources said the BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana had issued a direction on January 3 to erect poles to facilitate laying of OFCs in a systematic manner.
Aesthetic look of the City
His instruction was that the existing OFCs, which have been laid overhead not only spoil the aesthetic look of the City, they also endanger lives. As everywhere the duct has not been laid, the cable operators as well as the telecom firms have pulled OFCs overhead.
As the new OFC policy coupled with the acceptance of the telecom firms about the total length of OFCs laid in the City are set to generate good revenue for the BBMP, the Palike administration decided to enhance basic infrastructure for spreading cable network overhead.
58 roads
Sources said that among the 58 roads some are MG Road, Infantry Road, Kasturba Road, Residency Road, Brigade Road chosen for the overhead OFC networks.
In this regard, the Chief Engineer of BBMP (OFC & Telecom) N Ramesh said the idea was mooted because roads were getting damaged.
He said: “These poles will not disturb pedestrians. A small section of the road will be drilled where the poles will be erected. We are also making sure that the poles do not obstruct drains. Presently, the OFC poles are being laid on a trial basis.”