PMC bends rules to allow MahaPreit install 500km overhead fibre network

Pune: Even as the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has banned overhead cables, it has allowed Mahatma Phule Renewable Energy and Infrastructure Technology (MahaPreit), a state government public sector unit, to install 500 kilometres of fibre optical cable using streetlamp posts.

MahaPreit has been given the work order to set up the optical fibre cable (OFC) network under the central government’s integrated command and control centre initiative that will help monitor natural disasters. The centre will connect offices, schools, and hospitals via the internet. Under the Urban Flood Risk Management scheme, the Centre has allocated ₹250 crore for Pune city after clearing the proposal a year ago.

To create a 500-kilometre optical fibre cable network, the company has been granted permission for road digging. However, the electricity department has now allowed overhead cable installation using PMC’s streetlight poles. MahaPreit has started laying cables in areas like Kharadi, Hadapsar, Vimannagar, Kalyaninagar, Koregaon Park, and Mundhwa.

A PMC electrical department official said, “The road department has refused to give permission to dig stretches to lay fibre. Besides that, it will take time and a lot of money and manpower to lay a 500-km cable network. As it is a central government-funded project related to safety and security of citizens, we have given the firm permission to use streetlamp posts for overhead cables.”

Meanwhile, considering safety risks caused by broken wires, PMC besides banning overhead cables regularly removes such cables in cleanup drives with thousands of kilograms of such wires piled up at PMC’s encroachment department landfill without a disposal plan.

To avoid the high underground installation cost of ₹12,000 per metre, private internet and DTH companies in Pune have relied on overhead cables. This has created a tangled network that blocks streetlights and poses risks to birds. In response to citizen complaints, PMC is conducting “deep clean” drives every Saturday to remove such cables.