Did you know BBMP is flouting its own rules?

Over the period of years, Bengaluru Bruhat Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has set a number of rules for the city dwellers. These rules were laid down for the betterment of the silicon valley of India. But ironically, BBMP has been flouting its own rules.

The rulebook says that roads that are asphalted less than a year ago, by any means, should not be dug up for laying Optical Fibre Cables (OFC) or any other purpose. But BBMP has been allowing telecom operators to dig the fairly-new asphalted roads in Bengaluru.

For example, BBMP has allowed a telecom operator to dig up ECC Road in Whitefield recently. The ECC Road was in terrible condition and after several protests from the residents; it was fixed just six months ago.  

“There are over 15 telecom companies that dig up roads multiple times a year, either to lay cables or to repair them. It is clearly mentioned in the rulebook that laying OFCs in newly asphalted roads is strictly prohibited for one year," a member of the Whitefield Rising was quoted as saying by Deccan Chronicle.

The residents have also alleged BBMP of taking crores of rupees from these telecom operators and subsequently granted them permission to dig up newly-asphalted roads in Bengaluru.

“Didn't officials at the BBMP OFC Cell know that the road was asphalted six months ago and permission for road digging should not have been granted? What is preventing the civic body from laying a common duct with access covers that can be used by all telecom service providers instead of digging up the road frequently,” the member added.

According to the rules, even if an agency digs up a road for laying OFCs or for any other purposes, they are supposed to relay the roads once their work is done. This does not happen in most of the cases in Bengaluru.

• BBMP
• Telecom Operators
• Karnataka