Kolkata to get rid of exposed wires

KOLKATA: Photographer Raghu Rai has been capturing Kolkata’s cityscape since 1970s. He has always revelled shooting with the colonial buildings of central Kolkata and the narrow bylanes of north in the backdrop. That unalloyed joy has ebbed these last couple of decades with dangling cables ensnaring his picture-perfect frames.
“The invasion of cables and wires is really sad. These days, it is difficult to come across a patch of the sky or enjoy a view of a majestic building without the cables coming in the way.They have become an absolute nuisance, not just in Kolkata but cities and towns all over,” said Rai, positively disgusted with the state of affairs.
So is chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has a penchant for beautifying the city. On Thursday, urban development minister Firhad Hakim hinted at it when he discussed the construction of an underground network of cable television lines to rid the city of the mesh of exposed wires that has become an eyesore.
“We have done it in Rajarhat by constructing ducts to carry the cables. This practice will soon be introduced in Salt Lake. A pilot project is currently underway in the IT hub at Sector V. Once we are done with Salt Lake, a similar project will be taken up in Kolkata in multiple phases,” Hakim said at the Cable TV Show 2017.
At present, cable TV operators use KMC electricity poles to string the black cables across the city with connections drawn to 30 lakh households. The cityscape is currently ensnared by an estimated 10,000 km of overhead cables.
Apart from being a visual pollution, the exposed cables are also vulnerable to disruption in services, either caused by man or nature. While storms and cyclones cause cable lines to snap, there have also been allegations of competitors hacking the exposed cables lines.
“Longevity of cables will increase once they are subterranean, the same as CESC power cables in Kolkata that are more stable than services in other cities because they are underground,” explained Cable TV Equipment Traders & Manufacturers Association (CTMA) secretary KK Binani.
MMiC (electricity) Manzar Iqbal said he had recently held three meetings with MSOs and asked them to tidy up the cables. “We will start with dividing the city into zones and entrusting each operator of an area to fix responsibility. Cables will not be allowed to dangle before heritage and other important buildings,” he said, adding that a fee structure was yet to be worked out.
There are, however, multiple challenges to laying fresh cables in an unplanned city like Kolkata that already has multiple underground utilities. Capital investment pegged around Rs 1 lakh per kilometre per operator (there are five major MSOs in the city) is a big deterrent that the cable TV industry will shy away from.
However, CTMA chairman Pawan Jajodia feels if the government mandates a clean-up, operators are bound to fall in line. “It has happened in New Town where Hidco has provided the ducts. Either ducts can be constructed or cables can be laid through a boring system being used by telecommunication firms to lay optic fibre cables. Biddhannagar Corporation is finalising a policy on right of way. Kolkata Municipal Corporation will also have to do it,” he explained.
If that happens, Rai will be only too happy take up another project and produce his fourth book on Kolkata.