Meeting held with Mandya In-Charge Secretary; CESC MD inspects vandalised poles on NH-275
Srirangapatna: The Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) has asked the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to ensure that all electric poles on the sides and bypasses of the 10-lane Access-Controlled Expressway between Mysuru and Bengaluru (NH-275) are well-secured before the electricity properties are handed over to CESC for maintenance.
This comes days after Star of Mysore published a report on Jan. 30 titled ‘25-ft. tall electric poles sway dangerously as thieves steal horizontal metal bars’ highlighting how thieves are stealing the stainless-steel angles (metal bars) fixed on the electric poles. As the angles have been removed, the poles dangerously sway when the wind blows.
Following the report, CESC team conducted a survey and reported to Managing Director Jayavibhavaswamy that angles of over 240 electric poles from Ramanagara till Srirangapatna have been stolen by thieves under the cover of darkness.
Inter-departmental meeting
An exclusive inter-departmental (CESC-NHAI) meeting was held yesterday afternoon that was chaired by senior IAS officer and Mandya In-Charge Secretary Jayaram Swaroop with the CESC officials, NHAI Superintending Engineers and its technical team. It was decided at the meeting that the Mandya CESC Superintending Engineer will list out in writing all the safety measures with technical knowledge to be taken by the NHAI and the NHAI will follow them to ensure public safety.
Before the meeting, CESC MD Jayavibhavaswamy, General Manager (Technical) Lokesh, Director (Technical) Umesh Chandra and Superintending Engineer (Mandya Circle) Krishnamurthy inspected the poles from which the angles have been stolen.
“Now that all the bypasses of the Expressway are open for traffic, the theft has come to light. The poles are standing precariously and many are swaying dangerously and threatening public safety. We discussed in detail about the thefts and made it clear to the NHAI officers that safety precautions have to be taken before the Expressway is fully open to traffic and also before the electrical properties are handed over to CESC,” Jayavibhavaswamy told Star of Mysore.
Technical guidance
“If the NHAI had asked us we could have technically guided them on the proper way to install the electricity poles. If poles are more than 50 feet, guy wires (a tensioned cable designed to add stability to a free-standing structure) must be fixed on all the four sides, once the angles are fixed, brazing or jamming (metal-joining process) has to be done so that the nuts and bolts are not easily removed by thieves,” he explained.
The electricity poles are at a height over 60 ft. and thieves have removed angles up to over 30 ft. “How will the poles withstand wind pressure in the absence of angles and guy wires,” Jayavibhavaswamy questioned. “The meeting discussed all the aspects in detail. Public safety is important. We cannot carry out repairs after the poles are charged and electricity is supplied. Tomorrow if the poles fall on people, only CESC will be held responsible. So, before that, all the anomalies must be fixed,” he added.
CESC has also asked the NHAI to prioritise the restoration works. “First, they must restore the poles where more than 30 ft. of angles have been stolen. Also, before handing over the electrical properties to CESC, all precautions must be taken and safety aspects must be covered as it will be CESC’s responsibility to maintain the poles after the warranty period (the contractor will maintain it for one year as power contract). We will have to enter the poles in our asset books and train our staff to maintain them and also, we must purchase similar poles, wires and angles in case of future repairs,” Jayavibhavaswamy said.
Wonderful. Those who stole are Indian citizens!
There would be more malpractices when this Highway becomes fully operational!
Interesting about this country and its citizens.
Though with nearly 1000 universities, it is reported that the illegal asylum seekers who are crossing the English channel from France to England on dinghies consists a large number of Indian students, who want to settle in England, and claim student loans and other benefits. They paid money for the criminal gangs to do ferry them across the |English channel on inflated dinghies. They think that the Indian extraction PM of Britain would give them asylum and the goodies!!
Similarly a large number of Indian students paid criminal gangs to travel on boats to Australia, to claim asylum there, and use the local benefits and loans.
Meanwhile Narendra |Modi boasts about India!
He should be proud of these Indian citizens too who helped themselves with the metal parts.
Jai Hind!! India after 75 years of independence.
Where is @Sanjay Kini with his suggestions?
He is into recommending specialists to treat cardiac illness and Rheumatoid Arthritis, citing his mother’s illnesses and treatment, besides being an expert of tourism, electric buses, sustainable Chamundi Hill development and heritage preservation. Quite a genius indeed.
He should come out with a good solution to this problem too.
My suggestion would be 24×7 expressway patrol by the Cops. with night vision cameras. Once Highways are secure it becomes easy for tourists even to travel in the night. The previous highway used to have shops and houses on the way but the new expressway will be little lonely in certain stretches especially the 53km of bypasses around the 5 towns on the way. and hence the need for Expressway Patrol , Also provide radar speed guns to the patrol vehicle so that over speeding can be controlled. The other option of CCTV camera for every 250meters is already planned by NHAI.
Hey @Sanjay Kini
As I expected, you have come out with your suggestions. Some one has to pay for them, guess who, in what ways?
As for your English, ” little lonely” means not lonely, but ” you are looking for the use of ” a little lonely” This will be a very crowded expressway, for heaven sake!
But, I am more interested in your recommendation of a very good orthopaedic surgeon and eye surgeon too, which your mother consulted.
She seemed to have consulted a plethora of specialists for treatment, and that you think make you an expert too! Do not forget also to recommend a pulmonary specialist who treated your mother , as the Highway gets more congested leading to pollution that cannot be good for lungs!
There were intense stealing of fish plates holding the rails in a rail track during 1950s, after independence, when Indians became their own masters, which resulted in some trains being derailed. There was once, an incidence, which I remember in my early school days, the stealing of a large section of fish plates near Srirangapatna, resulting in the derailing of a crowded passenger train, with many deaths. There after, there was less use of these tensile strength fish plates. The gang which stole these fish plates had tools to do it and were hired by a crime baron with political connections. The steel used was valuable. The culprits including their masters were caught when they picked a section of the rail track near a field, where a farmer was doing the weeding his field in the early hours of the morning and reported the theft, identifying the gang. It took the deaths of passengers to start the hunt for the culprits.
These kind of angle steel plates are securely bolted requiring quite an effort to detach them from the poles indicating that this is not the case of a petty thieves stealing them. The SOM reported control panels stolen from the street lighting set up in a busy Mysore road, which rendered the entire road in darkness. As usual , the police were unable to catch the crime boss behind it.
The previous Mysore police commissioner Chandra Gupta-nice name paraded the armed robber gang members who looted a jewellery store in Mysore in 2021,boasting that his team caught them, but omitted the fact that the leader of that gang escaped, and is reportedly leading a comfortable life in a city in N India! Next, the proudly displayed AI-directed sensors along the Highway will be the focus.
Narendra Modi inaugurates the Highway boasting the strength of Tech India!
NHAI could also consider using properly designed, galvanised, structural steel, circular hollow sections for these elements instead of a fabricated steel lattice towers. They can be easily designed and manufactured up to 60 feet in height, some wind tunnel tests and damping may be required. Since these towers are needed in thousands, along kilometres of highways, it is worth exploring alternative forms of design that are more robust and vandal proof. Circular hollow sections look more elegant too.