The civic administrators are sitting on a proposal for a bylaw to govern trenching of city roads for laying cables, even as a controversy over the issue has disrupted several meetings of the Kochi Corporation council.
The last council meeting, held on Wednesday, also witnessed uproarious scenes, with the Opposition alleging irregularities in road trenching. Moreover, the auditors of the Local Fund Audit of the State government had repeatedly pulled up the civic authorities for the alleged inept handling of files pertaining to trenching of roads and cable laying and collection of fee from companies.
The works standing committee of the corporation, which met on March 2, had submitted a detailed report to the council on the need for enacting a bylaw, said P.M. Harris, chairman of the works standing committee.
The committee suggested the legislation on noticing the rising trend of unauthorised trenching of roads. Several telecom companies were illegally trenching roads beyond the permitted distance, resulting in huge revenue loss, it was noted.
Realising the loss sustained by the civic body, the committee also proposed that the firms violating the law be booked under the Prevention of Damage to Public Properties Act. The panel noted that some telecom companies had been submitting applications in a vague and confusing manner with ulterior motives, Mr. Harris said.
Besides the legislation, the committee suggested that sworn affidavits be collected from companies after including details of trenching including the mode of trenching and distance to be trenched, which should be cross-checked with field data.
“The callous attitude of the civic body in reigning in telecom companies is leading to huge financial loss,” Mr. Harris said. Besides collecting restoration charges from agencies that cut open roads, the local body should levy track rent and deposit from agencies. Going by the revised rates, every agency trenching Bitumen Macadam Bitumen Cement (BMBC) roads should pay ₹5,931 per sq m. If the roads are laid using chipping carpet, the restoration charge will be ₹3,204 per sq m. The rates will increase significantly, if the roads are cut open using the open trench method, he added.
The revised track rent will be ₹50,000 for a cable to be laid for a distance of one kilometre.
At present, there is no clarity on the distance at which telecom companies have cut open roads and laid cables. As many as seven cases of violation have been detected in the past few months, Mr. Harris said.
