A decision to this effect was taken in the board meeting on February 1, and it comes in the backdrop of the Urban Development Department (UDD) issuing draft rules for regulation of cable laying in the city, which ironically explicitly prohibits over-head communication cables on electric poles or any power utilities.

The draft rules gazetted on January 14 are all set for a final notification in first week of March, even explicitly suggests that the Telecom Service Providers and cable operators erect their own poles – high enough not to disturb electricity distribution and the poles at least 40 metres apart.

Bescom had discontinued the practice of allowing communication cables on electric poles following the death of a youth due to a dangling wire in 2007 and directions from Lokayukta to remove all cables from the poles.

However, the practice continued unabated with TSPs, cable operators and DTH service providers crowding up the electric poles illegally, without even paying Bescom any fee. Clearly BBMP’s special drives to remove all illegal cables have yielded little results.

Bescom is now making the argument that they are losing revenue while their property is being used up, to re-start the scheme with a Rs. 45,000 rental per kilometre per annum. “We can’t be losing revenue while our assets are being utilised,” said Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Managing Director, Bescom.