Residents in Kasavanahalli and Sarjapur Road areas spend over 7 hours without electricity

Residents in Kasavanahalli and Sarjapur Road areas spend over 7 hours without electricity.
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement

The residents in Kasavanahalli and Sarjapur Road areas woke up to a power outage and spent about seven hours without electricity on Wednesday, October 2. Thanks to the faulty work of a telecom company which is laying Optical Fibre Cable (OFC). 

A telecom company that carried out overnight work damaged the underground high-tension cable of the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (Bescom). The company workers dug the ground to lay the OFC and during the course of this work, a HT cable was cut resulting in power outage. 

Vishnu Prasad, a resident talking to The Hindu said the power went off at around 4 a.m. and resumed at around 11 a.m. “The residents in the area wondered why the Bescom cut power and found that this was due to damage done by a popular telecom company,” he said.  

Mr. Prasad said he spoke to Bescom and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials and requested them to register a First Information Report (FIR) against the company for causing damage. The company has dug for about 3 km to lay the OFC. 

Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE), Bescom, said earlier the telecom companies were using poles to draw OFC creating problems for the power cables. The Bescom then started to remove such cables. Now the companies are damaging HT lines laid underground. 

After the damage at Kasavanahalli, Bescom ensured that the same was fixed by the company. The problem is the companies fail to keep the Bescom in the loop and during the night hours there will be only two linemen working in the area. “We are in talks with the BBMP over what needs to be done.”

“On Thursday, October 3, BBMP will verify whether the company has sought permission from the competent authority for laying the OFC. If no permission was sought, then FIR will be registered,” the local civic official said.