BENGALURU: Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM) informed the Karnataka High Court on Monday that it has approached the BBMP to set up a coordination committee to identify areas conducive for housing electricity installations like transformers and equipment for new installations in the city.
Recording the response of the Bescom in response to the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Wing Commander GB Athri (retired) drawing the attention of the court to the threat to public due to transformers installed on footpaths, the division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj said that the court will have to consider appointing an agency to study whether the transformers on footpaths are dangerous to public health.
In the affidavit, Managing Director MB Rajesh Gowda, Bescom, said, “The endeavour of Bescom is to provide service causing least inconvenience to its consumers as well as the general public. Placing electrical equipment on the footpath is unavoidable due to the non-availability of suitable alternative locations,” he said.
“As stated in the statement of objections to the writ petition, out of 8,659 numbers of distribution transformer centres which are located on roads, footpaths, etc., in Bengaluru, Bescom has identified 4,035 of the distribution transformer centres, which will be replaced with newly-designed transformers. Out of the 4,035 transformers as on March 30, 2020, 3,196 have already been replaced with the newly-designed transformers,” Gowda added.