OFC mafia gives ORR service roads strafed look

BANGALORE: Being laid and relaid only to be dug up is the fate of most roads in the city. But the state of the Outer Ring Road stretch near Bellandur is even worse. The service roads were dug up to lay optical fibre cables. But even after three months they remain disemboweled for reasons best known to the contractors and civic authorities. Employees of many companies along the stretch have a harrowing time negotiating the deep channels that threaten disaster any moment.
Only two years ago, the BDA had started constructing flyovers along the stretch - the idea was to make it a signal-free corridor. But the work itself led to traffic snarls running up to kilometers. The Kalyannagar flyover next to Manyata Tech Park in still in limbo.
Even as work on these flyovers is yet to attain a sense of closure, telecom and internet service providers have dug up the service roads of ORR near Bellandur to lay optical fibre cables. Akshay Prabhu, a techie who works in a multinational company in Bellandur, recently escaped falling into one of those deep trenches while driving.
"The trenches are two to three feet deep and with mounds of mud heap around, making the road unmotorable. After a frustrated wait for two months, I complained to the authorities concerned on July 3. But I didn't even get an acknowledgement," says Akshay.
Insurance executive Sumit Roy, who frequents this road during client visits, shares Akshay's plight. "This road houses some of the most prestigious IT companies of Bangalore. If civic authorities continue to neglect such important zones,
investors will surely start having second thoughts. I struggle to maneuver my bike at night amid heaps of mud, avoiding the trenches on the road. The service roads aren't even well lit, and, during rains, it's best not to go there," says Sumit.
BBMP CROSS WITH OFC MAFIA
The BBMP had issued notices to 18 telecom and internet service providers asking them to stop laying optical fibre cables illegally in many places. This was after an inspection conducted by a committee which included mayor BS Satyanarayana.
The committee had found that 60,000 km of cables had been laid illegally. During inspection, they also seized 12,000km length of cables. The OFC mafia has dug up at least 15,000 pits across the city.
ROAD MUCH TRAVELLED
The 62-km long Outer Ring Road is the gateway to key corridors of the city like Electronic City, Whitefield and tech-parks that have sprang up all along the stretch at places like Nagavara, Marathahalli, Bellandur, Iblur and Silk Board junction. THE ORR also connects to the industrial belts like Yeshwantpur, Peenya Industrial areas and KR Puram.
Most importantly, the ring road intersects major highways like NH4 at Tumkur road and Old Madras road, NH 7 at Bellary road and Hosur Road, NH 209 at Kanakpura Road, and SH17 and Mysore road.
SERVICE PROVIDERS AC COUNTABLE
While the issue is more pertinent to the BDA (BDA is in charge of the Outer Ring Road), service providers have to follow the MoU signed with the BBMP in matters relating to laying cables anywhere within the BBMP limits. We collect laying charges from these companies, and they are time-bound to finish the work. It's also wrong on their part to dig up roads that have been asphalted just a year ago. We are aware that in many places they have dug months after the roads have been laid.
If the companies violate the MoU clauses, they'll have to pay twice the rent.
NR Ramesh | councilor of Yediyur ward and member OFC inspection committee, BBMP