Power cuts in Bengaluru's MG Road caused by damage to underground cables, say engineers

BENGALURU: The Mahatma Gandhi Road and surrounding areas in the city frequently go without power even as Bescom says there is no load-shedding.

When ET enquired, KPTCL engineers said the interruptions are caused by a damage done to its 220 kV-class underground (UG) precision cable on the Old Airport Road.These cables are imported from South Korea and the transmission utility has to fly in experts from South Korea to fix the fault.And, it may cost as much as Rs 1 crore and take four months to locate, fix the joint and rectify the fault if the cable damaged belongs to the 220 kV class.

“We have no shortage of power but when contractors of BWSSB or other agencies damage our cables, we have to sometimes get experts from South Korea because these are highly specialised tasks,“ KPTCL managing director Jawaid Akhtar told ET.

“The rectification is a precision work carried out in controlled atmosphere and said a KPTCL engineer. In the past four months, there have been six instances of damages to cables. They get damaged, say KPTCL engineers, when contractors engaged by BWSSB, Gas Authority of India, telecom firms and cable operators dig the ground to lay their own pipelines or cables.

The KPTCL has laid underground cables of 220 kV or 66 kV class in many areas and they are from South Korea or Switzerland. If the KPTCL is lucky , service engineers are available in New Delhi, and in such cases, the restoration happens sooner.

Whenever authorities don't allow roadcutting, contractors do the so-called trenchless laying of cables. Many a time, the drilling damages the insulation on the cables, leading to a disruption in power supply.

Sometimes, it takes as long as a month to get engineers from South Korea or Switzerland depending on who has supplied and done the underground cabling. Until then, consumers suffer frequent power outages.

The KPTCL routinely files police complaints against BWSSB or GAIL or tele com companies whenever there is a case of damage to its cables. The utility will close the case if the organisation or the company pays us the restoration costs, said the KPTCL official.

There have been instances when KPTCL has been able to recover part of the costs from organisations such as BWSSB. In a recent case of damage by NIMHANS contractors within its campus, the premier mental health organisation has filed a counter complaint against KPTCL blaming it for running the cable through its campus.