No more ugly wires in B Hills, J Hills

Some time soon, the much-blessed people of Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills won’t have to endure the ugly sight of overhead power cables from their French windows.The Andhra Pradesh Central Power Distribution Company Limited (APCPDCL) is replacing the overhead wiring with underground cabling (UC) in the two localities.The project will cost the power utility Rs 30 lakh per km of wiring. There’s some 250 km of street length to cable in the two localities. The underground cabling is also being done in some specific streets in various other localities where are power disruptions are frequent: Malakpet, Charminar, Yakutpura, Durganagar, Hakimpet Kunta, Mayurinagar, Motimahal, Tarnaka, HPS Begumpet.N Sarat Chandra Seenu, chief meneral manager of APCPDCL, said the underground cabling will ensure that there will be no power interruptions during the summer and monsoon months due to falling trees and such other problems.The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has agreed to facilitate the power utility’s grand design by by allocating a corridor in these localities.The corridor will carry dual electric cabling. The purpose of the dual cabling is to use one wiring as a backup in case of a breakdown. So power failures are going to be passe.Unless generation dips or trips in APGenco or other of APCPDCL’s power sources. APCPDCL chairman and managing director M T Krishna Babu is meeting GHMC officials and other departments next week to smooth the way for the project.Sarat Chandra is gung-ho about the project. “Once this pilot project is completed in one year, you’ll see no overhead electric wires in Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills.’’ But what good karma have the good people of B Hills and J Hills accumulated that they will get this power nirvana? anjara “We chose to start the project in posh localities because there are plenty of wide roads there where a cable corridor is easier to install,’’ Sarat Chandra explained.The underground cabling will also enable APCPDCL to respond faster if there is a disruption. Spending Rs 1 crore, it has purchased a UC fault detector vehicle which zeroes in on the breakdown point in a trice.
By Mouli Mareedu