The BBMP office.
Credit: DH Photo
Bengaluru: The BBMP has publicly notified Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), and TV cable operators to declare unauthorided cables by December 20.
The notice also warns service providers that the civic body will remove undeclared cables.
It read: "It is informed that the alignment of cables where there would be no declaration of ownership for cables, such cables shall be removed by the BBMP after 21-12-2023 without further notice. No explanation from any companies will be entertained after such a period.”
The civic body has offered to regularise illegal cables, if operators declare them along with relevant details.
“After the receipt of declarations, efforts will be made by the BBMP to first regularise the unauthorised cable networks declared by the companies and further will take suitable action to find the necessary interventions required to convert the overhead cables to the underground cable network,” the notice further stated.
This is not the first time the BBMP has issued such a notice, with sources revealing that officials have faced challenges in cracking down on offenders.
“All the companies were sent a notice to declare the cable length and locations where they were laid,” averred a senior BBMP official. “There was no response.”
“Then, to elicit the details, the BBMP stopped providing permissions to companies that failed to record the details. That also did not have any impact,” the official added.
Recent deaths
The city has been struggling to handle the illegal cable menace, highlighted by the recent death of a 23-year-old woman and her daughter after being electrocuted by a live electric wire on a footpath in Kadugodi.
Concerned citizens pointed to the risk posed by loose hanging cables across the city and the challenge in distinguishing live wires from Optical Fiber Cables (OFCs).
The incident also prompted Energy Minister KJ George to announce a 15-day deadline for the removal of illegal cables.
In August, two students in their early 20s suffered injuries as electric poles toppled on them, pulled by speeding vehicles through hanging cables.