The civic body has taken up a survey of optic fibre cables (OFCs) to determine the illegally laid ones. Chief Civic Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath told reporters on Tuesday that Bengaluru Development Minister D.K. Shivakumar had directed the civic body to regularise the illegal OFCs after levying a hefty penalty.
“The survey report will be ready in a week,” he said. Instructions have been given to officers not to allow the digging up of newly laid roads. FIR will be registered against the violators, he said.
Whitefield Rising had lodged a complaint with the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Whitefield), demanding an FIR against CEOs of telecom service providers (TSPs) for laying OFCs illegally and in a way that poses a threat to public safety.
Meanwhile, the move to regularise illegal OFCs after levying a penalty is also aimed at mobilising revenues for the civic body, sources said. But, an earlier similar attempt had not produced the desired result.
In February 2015, the civic body signed MoUs with 14 TSPs and 17 non-TSPs over laying OFCs.
N.R. Ramesh, former BJP councillor, who spearheaded the MoU initiative with TSPs in 2015, said, “Companies were given a one-time opportunity to declare unauthorised OFCs, which led to TSPs declaring nearly 1,200 km of unauthorisedly laid OFCs. A survey had indicated over 67,000 km of cables in the city, of which the ones across 6,440 km were authorised. The city is now estimated to have over 97,500 km long underground ducts, which can hold three cables each. It is high time the civic body gets its due share of the revenue.”
