Salt Lake roads and trees tangled in cable mess, motorists at risk
Times of India | 6 January 2025
123 Kolkata: Overhead cables dangling across Salt Lake has continued to be a common sight in the township, even as the adjacent New Town could get rid of the menace, locals complained. ‘What Sector V or New Town could do, Salt Lake could not,' grumbled many. The hanging cables, wrapped around trunks or branches, not just damage trees but also pose risk to motorists as some of these get snapped and fall on the road. In such a situation, the possibility of accidents increase.
These cables are especially a threat to the bikers. In 2021, a 25-year-old biker had died near Baisakhi Island after the cables got tangled around his motorcycle's wheel. The fatal cables were strewn on the road at the time of the accident.
"The situation turns worse after dark when it becomes difficult to spot such snapped cable lines," said Kawshik Dutta, a resident of BD block.
In the adjacent Sector V, the Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority (NDITA) has largely completed removing all overhead wires andlaid those via underground cable ducts.
Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said they had spoken to cable operators numerous times about this cable mess, but to no avail. "The civic authorities have been trying to sort out this issue for a long time. We remove snapped cable lines from the roads as and when they are noticed and also ask the concerned cable operators to remove the defunct lines," said a BMC official.
The civic authorities earlier considered to take up a pilot project to set up underground cable ducts on the Broadway stretch from Salt Lake Stadium to Netaji Statue in Central Park, but the plan did not take shape.
BMC officials said it would require thorough planning to remove the cables as there was a heavy network of underground utilities in most of the main road stretches in Salt Lake. Officials claimed such utilities need to be shifted first for laying of the underground ducts.