The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : March 2009 deadline for Charminar pedestrianisation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 14, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

March 2009 deadline for Charminar pedestrianisation

Staff Reporter

Power distribution officials hopeful of completing underground cabling before cut-off date

118 of the 332 electric poles yet to be dismantled
Laad Bazaar only area where work is yet to take off

Photo: Nagara Gopal

Better days ahead: Charminar area will soon be free of electricity wires. About 80 per cent of underground cabling has been completed. —

HYDERABAD: The fresh deadline of March 2009 for completion of Charminar Pedestrianisation Project (CPP), as enunciated recently by the Chief Minister, gets the nod from the power distribution officials, who sound positive about being able to finish the underground cabling works way before the cut-off date.

“About 80 per cent of the work has been completed. Only the Laad Bazaar section and the dismantling of poles at certain locations remain. Though the works have slackened during the festival season, we will soon resume them,” said Y. Markandaiah, Superintending Engineer of Master Plan Division of CPDCL.

Work progresses

True to his claim, only a stretch of 1.5 km remains to be laid with underground cables in the proposed 12.5 km originally taken up by the department under Power Finance Corporation (PFC) Scheme. However, the actual area to be covered as per the CPP is about 17 km.

In addition, 118 of the 332 electric poles previously supporting the overhead lines remain to be dismantled as part of the project. All the distribution transformers have been removed, according to official information.

Pilot project

Under the pilot project, the area identified was from Madina and Shalibanda covering either sides of the main road. While laying of the underground cables and the dismantling of the overhead lines were finished on the Madina-Charminar stretch, the stretch from Charminar to Shalibanda still has a few poles left. Poles are to be dismantled even on Charminar-Ali Sardar Mahal stretch where underground cabling has been completed.

Laad Bazaar is the only part in the proposed area where the work has not yet taken off. From there, on the stretches towards Purana Pul and also towards Khilwat up to where the road meets the one from Shalibanda to Fathe Darwaza, overhead lines need to be dismantled though the underground cabling is finished.

However, all the cables have been laid in trenches and not in the pre-cast ducts as originally proposed. Though Rs.9.78 lakh has been transferred to the Director of Tourism towards civil works, nothing concrete has come up so far, said an official. All the cables will be shifted to the ducts once they are laid.

Though the original proposal includes shifting of the Khilwath sub-station, nothing has been done in this direction as yet. Also, work remains to be done on stretches not covered under the PFC scheme.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh