Bengaluru: To put an end to the tussle with optical fibre cable (OFC) operators, the Palike has decided to give a notice of three days before cutting the cables. Also, OFC operators should accompany BBMP teams while they take up the drive to remove illegal cables.
The city is seeing heavy internet outages after the BBMP took up the drive and started cutting the cables. Many IT firms on Outer Ring Road were affected, disrupting their everyday work. While the Palike maintains that the clearance drive was part of their routine work to clear illegal overhead cables, OFC operators vented their anger against the BBMP and claimed that not all overhead cables are illegal.
“We have taken an exemption for certain cables. Those are legal and the BBMP has no right to cut them. Without checking whether the cables are legal or not, the BBMP chose to cut all of them at one go,” said an OFC operator. The operator said that it is difficult to give new connections in just a day or two without overhead cables. “We need to take permission to dig roads and lay OFC cables. The cost of it is very high compared to overhead cables. For one metre of underground OFC, it costs us Rs 600 per metre, while it is half of that cost for overhead cables,” he said.
“We have been asking the BBMP to reduce the cost of laying underground OFC cables as it is very high compared to other cities in the country,” he said.
“We have held several meetings with cable operators, and decided to give a three-day notice before cutting illegal cables. Also, Mayor Gangambike has asked OFC operators to accompany us during the drives to remove illegal OFC cables,” a BBMP official told Deccan Chronicle.
