The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has decided to lay underground cables on four roads in the city on pilot basis.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, GHMC Mayor Mohammad Majid Hussain and Commissioner MT Krishna Babu said that all cables belonging to MSOs, telephone operators, internet service providers and links would be laid underground under a common duct.
The underground cables would laid on a stretch of about 15 kilometres from Basheerbagh-Assembly-SR Nagar; NFC Junction-Masab Tank-SD Eye Hospital; Taj Krishna to KCP Junction and Indira Park-RTC Crossroads-King Jnt-Ram Nagar.
The Mayor said that once the underground cables are laid, cutting of roads would be banned for a period of five years. He said no agency would be permitted to take up digging up of road and in case of any violation, a criminal case would be booked against the Head of the concerned department.
The GHMC Commissioner said that the works would begin on Wednesday itself and the common duct would reduce the cost of underground cabling for all agencies by almost 10 times. He said another project of having underground cables on the stretch of 123 to 165 kilometres would be completed in the next six months. However, he said no deadline has been fixed for the completion of these projects.
Krishna Babu said that the GHMC was following the Chennai model for the underground cabling works and a team of engineers was sent to Chennai to study the same. (INN)