Guest Column: BBMP loses revenue as OFC operators remain unauthorised

Bengaluru: The BBMP has the potential to earn at least Rs. 2000 crore annually from the optic fibre cable (OFC) network laid by the OFC companies in the city. Unfortunately, due to lack of political will, corruption and the laid- back attitude of officials, it is earning a mere Rs. 280 crore from it annually. There is a long story about how it came to collect even this amount.

For 15 years, between 1999 and 2014, the BBMP earned just Rs. 21 crore from about 67,000 kms of network and ducts. The road cutting charge fixed for that period was just Rs. 14.50 per meter , which was abysmally low. A city like Agartala in Tripura ,which is a backward state, was charging Rs. 210 per meter at the time.

Between 1999 and 2005 when the IT boom was at its peak, OFC operators were given a free hand to lay their network without paying a penny. This made a huge dent in the BBMP’s revenue and the cable network even today continues to remain largely unauthorized.

I took personal interest in the matter by involving former MLA, the late BN Vijay Kumar, to explain the potential for revenue that the OFC network presented to former law minister, S. Suresh Kumar. When the issue went to court , it asked for the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (KMC) Act, 1976 to be amended and an OFC by-law to be passed. The government complied and the fee was fixed at Rs. 850 per meter for telecommunication cables and Rs. 550 for a non- telecommunication network like television cables and broadband.

Thirty one OFC operators entered into a memorandum of understanding with the BBMP and pledged to declare the full extent of their network. But they were not honest enough to do so. Successive governments did not take up the issue and the civic body is even now satisfied with earning just Rs. 280 crore annually from the city's optic fibre cable network.