By Reya MehrotraThere is light at the end of the tunnel that the city becomes each time it rains. The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Ltd (Bescom) board approved underground cabling (UG) work in the city and will start from July this year at a cost of Rs 5,300 crore for over three years.The work will be taken up in three phases with the first one costing Rs 1,870 crore. The first phase is likely to be done in 18 months.Work orders are being issued for 22 areas in the first phase. The places were shortlisted after a study by Bescom on areas most affected during rains.These include Peenya, Mahalakshmi Layout, Hebbal, Koramangala, Rajajinagar, HSR, Indiranagar, Malleshwaram, RR Nagar, Sadashivnagar, Basaveshwara Nagar, Jayanagar, BTM, JP Nagar, Girinagar, Chamarajpet, Shivajinagar, Lingarajpuram, Jayamahal, Ramamurthy Nagar, Yelahanka and Sahakaranagar.The UG cabling work will also be hassle free without the need for digging roads or cutting down trees.A senior Bescom official said a High Definition Digging Mechanism (HDD) will be adopted for laying UG cables which will eliminate the need to dig the roads. Under the HDD mechanism, only a few pits are dug at a distance of a few metres to install the cables.Bescom officials said during the rainfall of May 25 and 26 alone, 300 poles had fallen due to falling of 630 trees.This had led to disruptions in Rajanakunte, Shivajinagar, Malleshwaram, JP Nagar, Rajajinagar, Hebbal, RR Nagar and in Indiranagar. Not only this, each time it rains for a few hours in the city, Bescom lists out a number of poles that get damaged. This was costing Bescom more in terms of manpower than money, an official had shared.