The dangling cables and wires strung up from every electricity pole, lamp post and even heritage monuments would be a thing of the past as the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has cracked the whip on cable and internet service providers to remove the wires.

According to an estimate, the city has about 2,800 km of cables strung on various vertical structures.

“We realised the seriousness of the problem when we had the storm which felled many trees and destroyed electrical equipment. We had tough time removing the trees because of these cables. Now, we are very serious about removing these cables as they are coming in the way wherever trees were uprooted or electric poles got twisted due to the storm,” GHMC mayor Bonthu Rammohan said on Saturday.

“The weather is changing. Hyderabad never had big storms. The last one was recorded having winds gusting at 150 kmph at Jubilee Hills Checkpost and 90 kmph. Unless we move these cables underground, we will have problems in the future. The Electricity Department has begun the work and we want these cable and Internet companies to follow suit,” the Mayor said.

The GHMC officials have given out three options for cable and internet operators. “Either you team up and share the underground resources of other companies. Carry out your own underground cabling and pay for that or we will create resources and ask others to share,” said a senior GHMC official.

Incidentally, the Electricity Department and GHMC should get a fixed fee for the use of resources like the electric poles but it is zero revenue as of now.

The idea of moving cables underground may look sound on paper but is fraught with challenges for the civic body. “For moving all the electricity transmission lines as well as 2800 km of internet and TV cables underground will require digging up the whole of Hyderabad. Or the city can create dedicated underground channels where cables can be added or removed as per need,” said a GHMC official.