The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) officials said that the preparatory work of the Kochi Metro Rail which will commence on MG Road this weekend will not hit communication, banking, electricity or water services in the city. Earlier reports had said that the ‘takeover’ of the road, one of the busiest stretches in the city, would hit life and business, including bank ATMs and telecom services.
DMRC had informed that they would be ‘taking over’ MG Road for three days for inspecting the cables and other utility lines before commencing the actual metro work.
“We will identify the cables on MG Road. This is just a preparatory work. In fact, we are not going to do any kind of physical work on the stretch,” said a DMRC official.
Pointing out the reports about public life being hit he said, “We are getting many phone calls regarding this, so we want to make it clear that apart from traffic diversion business will run as usual on MG Road.”
It is learnt that DMRC has informed all the concerned departments, including KWA, PWD and BSNL, about the work. In case of any emergency, the DMRC will intimate the department concerned. “If any untoward incident happens, DMRC will rectify it within 15 minutes,” said the official.
But banks and telecom service providers said their services were not likely to be hit. The electricity board and water authority officials also said the same.
“We don’t expect any interruption,” said Vinod, chief manager, Federal Bank. “Bank ATMs have a wireless system called Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) that directly links them to satellites. Even if an underground cable fails the wireless VSAT will come alive, negating any possibility of affecting the ATMs,” he said.An official from Tata Docomo telecommunications has said that they had no fears of problems as they do not have any underground cable providing connectivity.
Jolly Mathew, BSNL Assistant General Manager, has said that necessary precautions have been taken. “We don’t expect a complete breakdown,” he said.