If we take a look at the road right below our residence or office through window, we might find a bundle of wires and cables connected from one pole to another to supply us electricity, internet, and telephone and cable connection. Service providers, including internet and dish cable operators, are using the poles illegally as they have no infrastructure to support their wires.
The service providers are engaged in an unhealthy competition of covering the poles with new cables in a haphazard manner having no idea about how these can cause accidents anytime. People walking along the city streets, particularly in the commercial areas, are at high risk of accidents due to
overhead utility service cables as such cables are often found hanging or lying on the ground in many city areas.
Read more: City corporation rules violated
We hope, the City Corporations will take
necessary action to successfully remove
all the hazardous and illegal overhead cables
However, despite repeated orders from the authorities to have the utility service connections underground, internet and cable TV operators paid no heed to the matter. Last year, in a meeting with the Dhaka City Corporation Mayor, Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB) and the Cable Operators Association of Bangladesh (COAB) decided in October that the messy hanging wires in the capital would be removed as soon as possible. But hitherto the work of removing the wires has not seen significant development. The initiative of placing the wires underground has not been implemented in most areas either.
We hope, the City Corporations by formulating concrete policies will take necessary action to successfully remove all the hazardous and illegal overhead cables. We expect service providers will also cooperate with the authorities concerned to immediately implement the plan to replace over ground cables with underground cables.
It needs no emphasising that the service providers would need more time to remove tons of wire and connect them through the underground system. Unless they are given the required time it is the ever growing consumers who would suffer the most. Therefore, authorities concerned should sit with the service providers and fix a reasonable deadline to complete the work.
