As the electric poles on newly build cement roads are creating a hurdle for a smooth flow of traffic, the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court has asked power utilities and civic agencies to remove them within a span of two weeks. Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), in its affidavit, claimed that due to ongoing road works and continuous unseasonal rains, the earlier deadline of January 31 could not be met.
NMC has further stated that, it takes more than 8 hours of electric outages in the work process of removing the poles and replacing them on a new location. In total 19 roads have been put under the list, of removal of the poles out of which the work on two roads has been completed. The remaining 17 roads, revised estimate of three roads is to be prepared by MSEDCL. The work on remaining 14 roads is on the verge of completion of various construction activities.
NMC along with MSEDCL has found 2,704 electric poles on 113 roads. The civic body has also found 368 DP/TP/FP structures and 100 transformers which are found to be in the middle of the road. MSEDCL has taken the authority of shifting the poles on seven roads out of 113 roads out of which one road is within jurisdiction of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), one under the jurisdiction of Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), 15 roads are with State Public Works Department (PWD), and remaining roads are with NMC.
The HC has already directed NMC to move the poles a decade ago right after the earlier expansion of roads. On which, Adv Shreerang Bhandarkar had charged NMC for delaying the pole shifting work as the civic body has not given any justified answer to the previous matter.
The notice has been issued to NMC and MSEDCL for the removal of electric poles and transformers by the bench comprising of Justice Atul Chandurkar and Justice Vinay Joshi. This decision was taken in full presence of top NMC officials, NIT officials and police authority. HC has also directed the police force to provide full adequacy to NMC workers while the shifting is being done. The court has ordered NMC to maintain inter departmental co ordination while the work is being done.
