A High Tension wire runs through a grid of apartment blocks, passing over a temple at Mayuri Nagar in Hyderabad. Photo: Nagara Gopal
However, officials yet to finalise works to be taken up on priority basis
Power lines hanging menacingly over the residential colonies and alongside the balconies could be a thing of the past in at least a few localities of the city, if funds allotted by the government as part of the Prajapatham programme are properly utilised by the Discom.
A total of Rs.25-crore has been allotted recently as part of the public outreach programme, for shifting of high tension and low tension power lines from housing colonies in all the four Discoms. Of this, the Central Distribution Company of Andhra Pradesh (APCPDCL) has got a lion's share, Rs.10-crore, with Metro Zone and Ranga Reddy Zone in GHMC area having been allocated Rs.1 crore each.After 75 per cent of the allotments are spent, the Discoms may approach for additional amounts, enclosing the utilisation certificates colony-wise. More funds are likely to follow depending upon the successful completion of works in the first phase.
However, a full month after the allotment, the Metro Zone officials are yet to finalise the list of colonies where the works are to be taken up on priority basis. This is despite the stipulation that works should be taken up first in localities where accidents took place earlier. A number of fatal accidents occurred in areas such as Sanathnagar, Mehdipatnam, Asmangadh, and Saidabad earlier, when people came in contact with live wires passing in close proximity of houses. Children were often easy victims. When people and public representatives protested, the company has played it safe by blaming it on the residents for constructing houses with no heed to vertical and horizontal clearance norms.
However, by the time these norms were fixed in 2003, many houses had already been built near the power lines, some even by the Andhra Pradesh Housing Board. One example is B.K.Guda in Sanathnagar where even high tension 11 KV and 33 KV lines are within hand's reach of residents.
The area recorded quite a few deaths by electrocution in the past few years.
The fresh sanction from government came in the wake of a report submitted to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy over a year ago, in which it was mentioned that over 8,000 houses in GHMC area were dangerously close to power lines. The report further mentioned that a total of 335 kilometers of power lines and nearly 3300 electric poles will have to be shifted in order to render these colonies safe.