Digging of roads in Chennai banned for 4 days

The Greater Chennai Corporation has decided to ban line agencies and residents from digging roads from August 8 to 11 to facilitate inauguration of the submarine optical fibre cables from Chennai to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Residents who dig roads during the period will be penalised. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to inaugurate the project this week.

Civic officials of all the 15 zones have been directed to prevent any unauthorised digging of 471 bus routes and 39,500 streets during the four days. Civic officials have been permitting at least 1,500 road cuts every month.

The number of road cuts has reduced because of the pandemic. However, a few locations have reported unauthorised digging by workers of line agencies. Civic agencies, such as Metrowater, have also been authorised to dig roads without permission from the Corporation, officials said. Such digging affects telecom connectivity.

V.K. Sanjeevi, chief general manager, Chennai Telephones-BSNL, said, “It is done to avoid any damage to the cables. We do it even when satellites are launched by ISRO. The cable comes through Port Blair into Santhome beach and goes to a landing station. We need to protect the cable as it goes via many parts of the city, including Haddows Road and Flower Bazaar. This is being done as a precautionary measure.”