Chennai: Time ground rules are laid for live wires

CHENNAI: A 35-year-old woman was electrocuted last week when she stepped into a puddle of rainwater at Pullianthope. A live wire that fed a streetlight had become exposed.
Exposed live wires, whether underground or overhead, are an ever-present threat across the city and its suburbs, and with the rains on their way the danger increases.

Power cables that feed streetlights maintained by the Greater Chennai Corporation get tangled up in everything.If a telecom company lays lines, if the water mains are repaired or the drains are relaid, there’s always the danger that live wires will be exposed. It doesn’t help that there’s little coordination between the government and private agencies that do the work. And it’s not as if the corporation’s electricity department keeps a strict watch. Everyone cuts corners.
Corporation commissioner G Prakash held a meeting on Wednesday and asked his electrical engineers to ensure the cables don’t pop out, they are well insulated and there is better coordination among various departments.
The norms clearly specify that underground power cables that supply streetlights should be laid in trenches 75cm (2.5 feet) deep and 45cm wide. But in most places, they can be found one to two feet below the road surface. A corporation official told TOI that this was because metrowater and Tangedco lines that are supposed to be laid 3.5 feet underground never are.
“We are scared that if we dig deeper we will damage these pipes. So we only dig down to two feet usually. Our [the corporation’s power] cables pop out when metrowater or Tangedco do repairs or relay lines. We are usually not informed when they do repairs. We find out only when residents complain our cables are exposed,” said a senior official in the corporation’s electrical department.
There’s another problem too. The corporation’s contractors carrying out repairs often don’t follow the rules. Asked why assistant engineers and junior engineers who are supposed to inspect these service lines after repairs don’t visit the spot, the official said it was difficult to inspect every work carried out.
The rules also specify that the road should be relaid with bitumen or cement after repairs to power cables, but this is rarely done. The spot is just covered with debris.
Monitoring is a weak spot. Annual contracts totalling Rs25 crore are in place for maintaining streetlights in the extended areas of the city. In core city areas, permanent workers of the corporation undertake repair work. But who makes sure the work is done properly? That’s where the problem lies.