Residents of various neighbourhoods in the city have reported civic issues arising from the digging of roads and footpaths for laying fibre optic cables. Chennai Corporation has tried many options to resolve these issues along 33,000 interior and 471 bus route roads, but the projects have done little to lessen the pain caused by the absence of a dedicated corridor for fibre optic cables in the city.
In 2009, the Corporation began to develop ducts for fibre optic cables along 28 important roads such as Cathedral Road, MGR Salai and Nungambakkam High Road. “We developed ducts for 28 important roads to improve connectivity,” said former Mayor Ma. Subramanian. However, most of the structures have been damaged by workers of line agencies and civic workers looking to drain stormwater to reduce inundation on roads during the northeast monsoon. As a result, the disruption of services has been frequent, causing hardship to residents and industry.
J. Kesavardhan, founder of K7 Computing, said the damage to fibre optic cables caused by road digging and building demolition has been a major challenge to bandwidth and speed. “We are not able to use technology when it is needed. The common man watches movies through the internet. We want to work from home. So connectivity is very important in all neighbourhoods,” he said.
“There is heavy dependency on the cloud. For cloud access in the city, speed remains a question. Today, connectivity is not available at speed and an affordable cost. A dedicated fibre optic network will also benefit the government in the long run,” said Mr. Kesavardhan.
Damaged roads
Former Chennai Corporation floor leader V. Sukumar Babu said more than 25% of roads had been damaged in neighbourhoods such as Arumbakkam because of digging of roads by service providers. “A service provider got permission for digging 100 metres and dug up roads for 800 metres. Senior citizens in residential areas are affected by noise pollution in the night due to the digging up of roads. Usually, they dig the roads on Saturday night. So the junior engineer of Chennai Corporation will not come to check the roads. None of the service providers follow rules,” said Mr. Babu.
On roads such as P.S. Sivasamy Road in Mylapore, cables have been damaged on account of frequent digging. Many of the contractors fail to understand the significance of the fibre optic network, leading to disruptions. Chennai Corporation officials at the ward level said most of the senior workers who retire do not share any information on civic infrastructure with their juniors. “We dig up roads to drain stormwater due to inundation of roads during the northeast monsoon. We end up damaging fibre optic cables, disrupting internet services. We do not have a GIS of the cables on the roads,” said an official.
Disaster management expert N. Mathavan said most of the interior roads in the city are narrow and civic officials are not able to dig the stretches for fibre optic cables without affecting the civic infrastructure of the neighbourhood. “The roads have double camber, sloping on either side to drain water. The corridor for a fibre optic cable needs a change in camber angle in most of the 33,000 roads, which will be challenging,” said Mr. Mathavan.
“The technology has been changing. The design of a dedicated corridor for fibre optic cables has to incorporate all aspects of the changes in technology,” said Mr. Mathavan.
Opposition expected
A few years ago, Chennai Corporation Bus Route Roads Department collected GIS drawings of fibre optic cables from all companies to resolve such civic issues. “For 5G connectivity, direct fibre optic connectivity to towers has to be strengthened. Now, the connectivity is only 25%. Some existing service providers are expected to oppose the move for a dedicated corridor for fibre optic cables. The service providers may worry about any possible monopoly of the bidder for the corridor,” said a representative from the industry.
Chennai Corporation Commissioner G. Prakash said the work on a dedicated corridor would begin shortly. Corporation Deputy Commissioner (Works) M. Govinda Rao said the project is in the preparation of Expression of Interest stage. “We will get details in a fortnight,” said Mr. Rao.
The corridor for fibre optic cables is expected to include all digital assets on a common platform, providing a high quality, reliable and affordable network for improving the services offered by Smart City projects, said officials.
