“Our civic workers are already cleaning up the clutter of defunct cable wires loosely falling on the road. We have also instructed the cable operators to remove dead wires at the earliest and have also sought help from Bidhannagar police to initiate legal proceedings against them,” said a senior official of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation.
TOI has time and again highlighted the danger associated with the loosely hanging wires in and around Salt Lake over the past few months. Even when a drive to clean up the cable mess ensued on Thursday, snapped overhead cable lines could be seen hanging from one street lamp post to another in several major arterial and crossroads of the township and some were found wrapped around trees at many places.
“The cable mess is everywhere across Salt Lake. It is very dangerous and risky for people like us who ride bikes to move on these roads, more so after dark when it becomes more difficult to spot these snapped cable lines from a distance,” said Kawshik Dutta, a resident of BD block.
“We cannot afford to lose our lives because of this cable mess. The surroundings of CK-CL Block park is full of snapped cables and at places residents have to lift the cables with hands to somehow enter parks or cross roads under the hanging wires,” said Dipankar Mitra, assistant secretary of CK CL Block committee.
On Thursday, TOI found cables lying on the road between CAP camp to Baisakhi, roads around City Centre and on multiple lanes of CC Block and BD Block in Salt Lake. However, there were also places like CE Block, DE Block, a road near Purta Bhavan and a stretch near Baisakhi Abasan that have been cleared of the cable clutter. The stretch between Baisakhi Island and Tank No. 4, where Wednesday’s accident took place, was also cleared of cables.
A local cable operator in Salt Lake said: “What has happened is extremely unfortunate. We do clean up and remove defunct cable lines as and when it comes to our notice from inside the blocks. Removing cables from the main thoroughfares is the responsibility of the MSOs,” the cable operator said.
BMC officials said they had been trying for long to solve the cable mess in Salt Lake.
“We have spoken with the cable operators’ numerous times on this cable mess but with little result. We will discuss the matter with the higher authorities if necessary to take stern actions,” said BMC board of administrators chairperson Krishna Chakraborty.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/biker-death-prompts-salt-lake-cable-action/articleshow/85283145.cms
