Cables turn pavements into obstacle courses in Chennai

CHENNAI: Tangles of cable wires left behind by telecom and broadband service providers on footpaths and cycle tracks are tripping up the unwary across the city. Residents com-plain that their protests are met with indifference by the civic authorities and the service providers continue their sloppy ways with impunity.

A prime example is Lakshmanaswamy Salai in K K Nagar. Pedestrians and cyclists are unable to use the sidewalk-cum-cycle track because of the cables left behind. “The cables have remained here for more than four days. No one should be allowed to misuse public sp-ace like this. Pedestrians end up risking their lives walking on the road because their feet get tangled in the cables,” said Siva, a resident of K K Nagar.

A corporation official said the workers of the service provider should have removed the cables as soon as they were removed from the poles and trees. “The old street lights poles from the middle of the footpath were shifted to the edge of the footpath at Lakshmanaswamy Salai. The damaged po-rtion of footpath will be restored within this week and the old cable TV wires will be removed immediately,” he said.

In a similar episode last week, a telecom company set up poles on pavements along 4th Main Road in Gandhi Nagar, Adyar, completely blocking the right of way of pedestrians. While the company had taken permission from the civic body to lay cables, it had not sought permission to install poles, a senior official told TOI. After complaints with a senior corporation official, the company was served a notice and one of the poles taken down. The others remain. A resident in Kellys said officials pass the buck when informed of such cables lying along roads. “Extra cables were left at the entrance of Branson Garden Road in Kellys after cabling was finished by the electricity board early in August. Four months later the cables are still lying here,” said D Bhuvenesh, adding that complaints to corporation have gone unheeded.