What lies beneath Bengaluru’s roads and pavements? From the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited to GAIL, from civic utilities like Bescom and BWSSB to telecom and cable companies, everyone’s digging underground. While each claims to have a map of the lines snaking beneath the city, there appears to be little inter-agency coordination, especially when it comes to older lines.
A senior civic official recounted a telling anecdote. “When we started TenderSURE work on M.G. Road, we asked for a map of water and sewerage lines below the road. A senior BWSSB official told us: ‘Find a valve on the road and follow it to map the pipeline below’.”
The fallout of this lack of communication is inefficiency, delays in infrastructure projects, recurring accidents and newly laid roads being dug up for utility work inconveniencing motorists and pedestrians.
In the past six months, pipelines laid by GAIL were punctured at least five times by different agencies. Civic officials claim that more often than not, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) is unaware of its own network, especially older lines.
“They are clueless as to where their water and sewerage pipelines are when we ask them to shift the lines for infrastructure projects, such as the Cauvery junction underpass, TenderSURE and white-topping of roads,” said a senior civic official.
BWSSB denies these allegations and said that new pipelines are mapped with GIS while older pipeline networks are updated in a map that has been shared with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
It’s not just government agencies that are fighting with each other. Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have time and again punctured water, sewerage and, sometimes, even power lines while laying OFCs.
The crux of the problem is that there is no spatial information of what lies beneath the ground. And this is exactly what the government wants to fix now. “A collated pan-city GIS-based map showing all utilities below the ground is an important infrastructure the city needs today,” said BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad.
The Urban Development Department (UDD) recently held a meeting with all parastatals to initiate mapping of all their utilities. Mahendra Jain, additional chief secretary, UDD, told The Hindu that once all parastatals map their utilities, they will be overlaid on a base map. With this, a map of all utilities will be created at the level of each street.
“Most of the recently laid utilities have already been GIS mapped. The challenge is to map old utilities, which even some of the agencies find tough. But we have initiated the process,” he said.
The project will be housed in the Karnataka Geographic Information System (K-GIS), sources said.
V. Ravichandar, former member of BBMP Restructuring Committee, proposed a Bengaluru Spatial Information Centre (BASIC) as a repository for the city as part of the restructuring report. He said a detailed proposal is before the government.
“K-GIS can be the nodal agency, but the map has to work on a federated architecture: each service utility agency will be responsible for the spatial data it puts up on the base map. There is a protocol to update spatial data on the map and share it with agencies,” he said, envisaging a handy mobile app that details all that is below the ground on any particular stretch of road. Only relevant data layers can be exposed to the public and the rest used by agencies, he said.
9,000 km of pipelines, even in older areas, mapped: BWSSB
BWSSB, which has the largest network of underground infrastructure in the city, claims to have mapped all its pipelines in varying degrees of accuracy.
While officials said all new pipelines are mapped with GIS, older pipeline networks are constantly updated in a map that has been shared with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Nearly 9,000 km of pipelines, even in older areas, have been mapped, said an official.
The board has been helped largely by the Unaccounted Flow of Water project, which replaced old, leaking pipes, as well as projects to replace older pipes when there are complaints of contamination. “We have some degree of reliability for over 95% of the network. Whenever we find an older pipeline, we calculate its rough alignment by drawing a straight line between successive valves or manholes,” says Tushar Girinath, Chairman, BWSSB.
This method, however, is not entirely accurate, with an official in BWSSB saying it could predict with a 75% accuracy the exact alignment of the line — that is, within 1-2 metres — while details of depth under the ground cannot be ascertained.
GAIL pipelines damaged at least 5 times in six months
In the past six months, the fledgling GAIL city pipeline network has been damaged at least five times by various government agencies or private companies digging the roads. The gas pipelines, laid one metre below the ground and whose lines have been marked with signboards every few metres, are perhaps the only utility in the city that are well-mapped.
A series of permissions are taken from Bescom, BWSSB and BBMP before GAIL can start digging roads to lay its pipes. After laying a pipeline, the fire and safety department monitors the line. The process includes online monitoring systems for detecting leakages as well as patrolling to detect digging works. Detailed maps are then submitted to civic bodies, said an official.
However, this has not prevented damage from other agencies. In October 2018, BMRCL contractors had twice damaged pipelines during works in Whitefield; while in January, Bescom and BWSSB had damaged pipes in Sarjapur and Singasandra.
‘Coordination among agencies has made Bescom work smoother’
With an aim to take all its lines either underground (UG) or overhead (OH) in three years, the Bescom is certain of there being little disruption from other civic agencies.
Bescom Managing Director C. Shikha said a high-level committee chaired by the Chief Secretary has been ensuring that works are coordinated. “As per directions of the Chief Secretary, there are coordination groups working at the sub-division level too. Work has been smooth lately,” she said.
Bescom’s UG plans received a push in the last State budget. The power utility has also announced that it will start laying optical fibre cables (OFC) alongside new cables that are going underground to establish its own communication system.
At present, 4,543 km of 11kv lines are UG, 5,839 km are OH, and 627 km are aerially bunched (AB). As for LT lines, 1,292 km are UG, 16,582 km are OH, and 1,647 km are AB.
All overhead HT lines will be converted to UG, and all LT lines into either UG or AB in three years, Ms. Shikha said.
Existing UG lines in the Central Business District have been functioning ‘successfully’, officials added.
Though the UG project is reportedly three times more expensive than aerial bunching of cables, Bescom says UG will help improve reliability in power supply, reduce the number of accidents caused by overhead wires, and improve the aesthetics of the city.
Damages to the lines, officials added, if any, would be caused through external factors. “We will have GIS mapping for the project and will have point-to-point location in case of a fault. We will have more than one source of power, which means we can isolate a faulty source and supply from the other source,” explained a Bescom official.
City has 9,735 km of OFCs
Around 9,735 km of optic fibre cables (OFCs) run along the length and breath of the city. According to the OFC Cell in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which accords permission to lay cables in the city, the civic body had collected a total of ₹704.31 crore from telecom and non-telecom service providers since 2012.
Details of all the permissions accorded by the cell, including maps of the cables laid, are published on the BBMP’s website. An official said the cell is now restricted to just according permission to lay cables. The responsibility of on-ground checking and execution lies with the ward-level engineers and assistant executive engineers.
“Once the cell accords permission, the same is forwarded to the zonal commissioner. One of the conditions of the permission is road restoration and minimising damage to the road,” the official said.
With overhead cables declared as unauthorised, the BBMP has received some applications from service providers to regularise them for a fee and to lay the cables underground. So far, only two service providers have submitted requests for regularisation.
Reliance Jio declared overhead cables measuring 1,115 km and paid ₹110.59 crore as penalty, while ACT declared cables measuring 555 km and paid ₹17.56 crore as penalty.
