Shallow underground cables disconnect infrastructure works in Cyberabad
HYDERABAD: The excavations for the Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP) project in the Cyberabad area have revealed that a lot of telephone and electric cables have not been laid at the prescribed depth.
The rule is cables for any purpose have to be laid at a depth of one metre below the ground. However, most of the cables there lie shallow at not even one foot under the ground.
According to GHMC chief engineer of projects R. Sreedhar, “This is a perennial problem across all the projects in the city. Most of the lines laid do not meet the criterion of a minimum of at least one metre below the ground. It is the responsibility of contractors who lay the line and the department concerned to see that the required depth is maintained. Some departments don’t stick to even maps and alignments of the lines.”
Flyovers and underpasses are being constructed in Cyberabad at Biodiversity Junction, Mind Space Junction, and Rajiv Gandhi Statue Junction and Ayyappa Society Junction as part of Package 4 of SRDP. At all the four junctions, cables that should have been laid at least at one metre depth show up after just one foot of digging.
These lines are not just causing a obstruction in digging for the flyovers construction, but they get cut off because of lying so close to surface, causing inconvenience to the public. The electric lines in particular pose a risk to the safety of construction workers.
However, on being asked why cables were not laid at the prescribed depth, a TSSPDCL official said, “Lines and cables in these areas were laid nearly 10 years ago. Since the level of the ground has significantly reduced due to several road widening and maintenance activities.” He also denied that they did not have details of alignment of the network of lines.
The GHMC engineer countered this saying, “We have sent several notices to the electricity department asking for alignments but there has been no response from them. The construction workers are working in a high-risk environment. We are not sure which cables lie where until we start digging. We have to proceed with extreme care and caution, which is causing a delay in the project.”
During the construction of the Ayyappa Junction underpass, two 132Kv high tension towers had to be shifted which added to the delay and project cost. The GHMC had to spend '32 crore on shifting the two towers. Usually, the underground lines are shifted by the departments concerned and the GHMC pays them the cost of shifting. The GHMC gave '3 crore to the water board for shifting water pipelines and TSSPDCL '12 crore for shifting its cables under Package 4 of SRDP.
Meanwhile, internet service cables that surface during digging are cut off and not shifted as they do not meet the required depth criterion and were laid not very long ago. According to officials, most of the cables are laid by private telecom operators do not stick to the cable laying norm.
