No permit to dig up new roads, Bengaluru minister tells OFC providers

BENGALURU: Permission will not be granted to dig up newly-asphalted roads in Bengaluru to lay optical fibre cables (OFC), City Development Minister K J George said Friday.

Service providers have been asked to come up with an alternative proposal for overhead cables within a fortnight. “Individual companies should also uplink their permitted connection details on a GIS platform run by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP),” the minister was quoted in a statement issued by his office.

The minister met representatives of service providers such as Reliance Jio Infocomm, BSNL, Vodafone, ACT, Reliance Communications, Airtel and Aircel to streamline laying of optical fibre cables, which has been a contentious issue in Bengaluru.

George took exception to companies digging roads haphazardly, causing inconvenience to road users. “No new road would be permitted to be dug for at least one year,” he said.

Four years ago, a BBMP committee had, in an interim report, stated that 17 service providers laid nearly 65,000 kms of OFC ducts, whereas permission had been sought for only 6,500 kms. However, BBMP has earned Rs 164 crore in revenue from OFC laying permissions since 2012.