Following multiple incidents of newly laid roads being dug up to lay optical fibre cables (OFC) by telecom service providers in Whitefield and protests by residents, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has now issued a notice halting all road-digging work to lay OFC in the entire Mahadevapura zone till further orders.
For instance, ECC Road — one of the major arterial roads that was relaid after around six years in July last year following protests by residents — was dug up twice by two telecom service providers, in the last week of January. This, despite the BBMP’s rules saying that a newly laid road should not be dug up for at least a year. Graphite India Road, which was relaid under the Nagarothana Scheme, was also recently dug up.
The chief engineer (OFC Cell) has issued a notice which blames the service providers for digging newly laid roads, even though the OFC Cell had given written permission for the work. The notice says that any further digging of roads in Mahadevapura will attract penal action. Zibi Jamal of Whitefield Rising said they were at least happy that the road digging had been put on hold. Residents, however, want to know who will repair the damage done to a perfectly good road.
