BCC-KPTC feud keeps rly passengers in the dark

bangalore: it is 10.30 pm. a train arrives at cantonment railway station. passengers alighting at the station end up groping in the dark once they are outside. reason: the lights in front of the station go off at 10 pm. a few months ago, a tower was installed in the car parking space opposite to the railway station for better illumination. it `blacked out' a month ago, plunging the entire area into darkness. when the times of india set out to find out reasons for the tower `fiasco', several interesting facts came to light. the railways was flooded with letters complaining about the darkness. sources said as the tower was erected on the corporation land, the railways could not do anything about it. it approached the kptc in this regard. the latter said it had disconnected power supply to the tower. according to kptc sources, ``the power connection was illegal. it is not a streetlight. bcc isn't authorised to draw power without following procedures. the bcc contractor who installed the tower did not take a metered connection. without metering, there is no way we can allow anyone to draw power.'' when a high-ranking bcc engineer was contacted, he said, ``the bcc will sort out the matter with kptc. we must pay kptc rs 1 lakh for reconnection.'' he said the contractor had failed to pay kptc while erecting the tower. on why these matters were not dealt with earlier, he declined comment. on how long it will take before the problem is set right, he said, ``the file is at the highest level in bcc right now. by the time the matter is settled, it could take about 10 days.'' he made the statement on september 9. till the matter is sorted out between the kptc and the bcc, the passengers will have to grope in the dark.