Internet cables hanging on electricity poles will be removed in a phased manner by making a plan of action, says MCC Commissioner

Commissioner of Mangaluru City Corporation C.L. Anand said on Saturday that the civic body will remove bunches of television and Internet cables hanging on electricity poles in the city in a phased manner by making a plan of action.

The Commissioner was responding to demands by councillors at the monthly meeting to remove them. The councillors, across party lines, said that people’s lives were at risk as such overloaded poles could fall at any time snapping the power lines.

Mr. Anand said that Internet providers and cable operators will be asked to shift their cables to ducts in such roads where ducts have been constructed.

Raising the matter of the electrocution of two autorickshaw drivers near Rosario school, Pandeshwar in the city on June 26, the councillors demanded that private Internet providers and cable operators should be made to lay their cables underground.

Councillors Abdul Latheef, Abdul Rauf, Naveen R. D’Souza and A. C. Vinayraj, former Mayors Diwakar, M. Shashidhar Hegde, and Premananda Shetty, and Leader of the Opposition T. Praveenchandra Alva spoke on the danger.

Mayor Sudhir Shetty Kannur said that Internet supply cables hanging between electricity poles also posed a threat to the lives of many two-wheeler riders. He asked corporation officials to remove private poles erected by the Internet supply providers and cable operators in such areas where Mescom has removed its electricity poles after the company laid underground power supply lines.

An official of Mescom told the meeting that the company, in the past two years, allowed private Internet providers to use its electricity poles to draw their cables only after producing a no-objection certificate issued by the city corporation. The official said the company has removed such cables from its poles while some Internet providers have been issued with the final notice for removing their cables.

Mr. Alva questioned why private players have not been made to remove their cables hanging on the Pumpwell-Padil Road, though utility ducts have been constructed on the road which has been constructed recently.

Mr. Vinayraj urged the Mayor to serve a week notice to private internet providers to register with the civic body by providing details of their network and area or else to remove their cables laid without the permission of the corporation. It will make them to approach the corporation. Then the civic body will also have a data with it.