QUEEN'S ROAD: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike will henceforth not allow telecom operators to dig just-asphalted roads.
Several operators have been busy laying optical fibre cables (OFC), often ruining freshly spruced-up roads.
The service providers can, however, go in for temporary overhead cables.
According to a BBMP source, 11 telecom service providers are laying underground optic fibre cables in Bengaluru.
All these years, they have paid no rent or fee. After digging up roads, they did not restore them to the original condition either.
The BBMP would spend money on repairing roads thus damaged. “It was a double loss for us. Now we are charging them `600 a metre for a licence renewed once in 15 years. For every freshly laid cable, the service provider has to pay us a fee,” an official said.
BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana told Express that overhead cables would be allowed on newly asphalted roads.
As a pilot, the BBMP allowed telecom operators to erect poles on one side of the footpath on M G Road.
“One company has come forward. We will charge them the same fee as we do for underground cables,” he said.
The poles are temporary. Once the road comes up for repair again, service providers can dig the road to put their cables below the surface, he added.
He believes this will help stop cutting of newly laid roads. A single pole can be used to run multiple cables. The poles are designed by Reliance, who have tried this initiative in Hyderabad. “The same model has been used here,” an official said.
Telecom companies, once they submit their proposals, are expected to provide a Google map showing where they plan to put up the poles, he said.
In the future, the BBMP hopes to design its own poles.