The civic body has set a deadline of June 18 for the removal of illegal cables on all roads.
The Chennai Corporation has sent notices to all cable TV operators and internet service providers, directing them to fix tags supplied after registering themselves with the civic body.
Service providers have received tokens from the Chennai Corporation for 2,000 km of cables to be tagged. Services offered through illegal cables of telecom service providers and cable TV operators are likely to be disrupted after June 18 in a number of neighbourhoods.
“Officials will remove cables that do not have tags. On June 18, officials will begin with 57 roads that will be fitted with footpaths. All illegal cables, including optical fibre network, will be disconnected,” said an official of the Chennai Corporation. After completion of work on ducts along 57 roads, all the cables will be positioned underground.
The initiative to remove illegal cables on streetlights in the city was taken up in some parts last year.
But the initiative was not successful because of lack of support from some operators, said officials.
The June 18 drive to remove cables is likely to be intense in the eight zones of Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar, Anna Nagar, Teynampet, Kodambakkam, Alandur and Adyar.
A number of stretches in city zones have been obstructed by illegal cables, causing hindrance to footpath modernisation work and pedestrians.
As many as 21 stretches passing through Teynampet zone, where work on 15 km of footpaths is underway, will get underground ducting for the cables shortly.
Cables that criss-cross most of the 60,000 sq. m. area covered by footpaths in Teynampet zone are yet to be regulated.
Key stretches such as Whites Road, Valluvarkottam High Road, Sterling Road, Sterling Avenue, Tank Bund Road, Mahalingapuram Main Road, Greams Road, Thiru-Vi-Ka Road, North Usman Road, Theagaraya Road, Luz Church Road and Binny Road will be among the stretches without any hindrance caused by illegal cables, within a few days of enforcement.
