The city’s pavements may get a whole lot pedestrian-friendly if Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) manages to win its battle against bulky transformers. A redesigned transformer that is sleeker has been chosen and may soon be used on a pilot basis.
Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Managing Director, Bescom said Church Street is the probable location for the pilot project. “An expert committee, which includes the Chief Electricity Inspector, famous civil engineer Rajasimha and (architects) Venkataramanan Associates, shortlisted one of the three firms that sent us their designs,” he said.
The primary concerns for redesigning the transformer structures were making them occupy lesser space on the pavements, safety of pedestrians, ease of operation and cost of implementation. “As we are looking at nearly 10,000 transformers on pavements, it will have to be cost-effective. If possible, we can even look at generating ad revenue,” Mr. Pandey said.
The focus would be on replacing transformers on pavements. The move was triggered by a fatal accident on Church Street in 2013. The High Court of Karnataka had pulled up the power utility and asked it to find out the number of transformers installed on pavements and roads in the city and submit a report indicating the time required to relocate them.
What is proposed?
For now, what could be used in “problem areas” is a model very different from the existing ones. “It will be at a certain height – maybe eight or 10 feet above ground level, ensuring they won’t obstruct movement on pavements,” explained an official.
Though the new transformers will be mounted on a pillar-type support, they are not the same as single pole transformers, the official added.
Modifications have been sought on the chosen design after which it will go for field tests, which will be followed by another round of evaluation before they replace the existing transformers.
