The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : High tension above, higher danger below

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 22, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

High tension above, higher danger below

Rasheed Kappan

Buildings cannot come up under EHT power lines
They should ensure a minimum distance from power lines

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Who cares: High tension wire going over the top of the houses at Vijayanagar in Bangalore.

BANGALORE: Oblivious to the danger that lurked just a few feet above them, the schoolchildren sat in play. Silent yet deadly, the 66 kV Extra High Tension (EHT) line hung high up there, connecting Hoodi and beyond to the sub station in HAL. It was too apparent a disconnect between safety and human life. Yet, in the heart of the erstwhile K.R. Puram City Municipal Council, and now right within the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), nobody cared to even look.

Further down the same road flanked by the EHT towers, houses big and small had chaotically carved out a labyrinth of community life. Order there was none. While EHT and other power lines crisscrossed the sky, the apology for a road below completed the picture of official neglect. Yet, between the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) which owned the EHT line, the BBMP in whose jurisdiction the lines stood and the landlords who once owned the place, there were none to say why the lines were so close.

Looking for an explanation from someone responsible, The Hindu eventually zeroed in on the local BESCOM office. But there too, the past lay blinded by the future. “Last year June, we stopped giving clearance to any house that directly stood underneath a high tension line or an EHT line. But what happened before that, and why the rules were violated, you must ask the licensing agencies,” throwing up his hand was a BESCOM executive engineer.

The Karnataka Electricity Grid Code, the rulebook for power supply, is clear: Buildings simply had no right to exist under EHT power lines. If they did come up, the KPTCL had every reason not to extend power supply. As most buildings — residential and commercial — had indeed come up thick and fast in most unplanned revenue layouts, the rulebook had to be scratched again.

Every building had to keep a minimum vertical distance of about three metres from the EHT line. But that was adequate only till last year. Now, buildings should also ensure a minimum horizontal distance from the power lines. Yet, these rules hardly mattered for the shops, houses and apartments that mushroomed in these layouts in the last one year. The structures apparently only got closer than before to the power lines.

Confronted with the ground reality, BESCOM found the licensing agencies such as the BBMP and CMC to pass the blame: “We keep requesting these agencies not to allow such constructions. There is also lack of public awareness. But people keep blaming us for everything,” said the BESCOM engineer.

If a snapped EHT line spells disaster, the eddy currents around the power lines are equally dangerous. For residents of the erstwhile revenue layouts, where the power lines are just one stretched hand away from contact, this current danger is in no hurry to go away.

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