Death looms large overhead

Death looms large overhead
Electricity Cables Shockingly Close To Buildings Here
A T Subrahmanya | TNN

Bangalore: Power lines hang low enough for your head to brush them as you walk on the streets. At some places, they run precariously across residential areas, even just an arm’s length away from the window or the balcony. Transformers are as close to the house as the neighbour’s compound wall.
Death seems to be lurking all over. One typical locality is Rustumbagh Layout off HAL Airport Road. The area is crowded with residential apartments and office complexes, and one can imagine the danger these power lines pose. Rustumbagh Layout is not the only area in Bangalore where death is looming overahead as it were.
Electrocution is a common occurrence across the city. Every year, Bangalore witnesses at least five such deaths which clearly shows the negligence of the authorities. Corrective actions are merely promised, and are forgotten till the next tragedy.
In one such incident on Saturday, 14-year-old Arjun, who was trying to catch pigeons on his house terrace at Shivanagar, suffered electric shock. The high tension wires that hung low took his life as 11,000 volts power passed through his body and even gutted the house wirings. Arjun, who received 90% burns, succumbed to injuries on Sunday around 1.15 am at the Victoria Hospital burns ward.
Climb up any of the highrise buildings or apartments, power lines are dangerously close.
Ironically, the city that was the first to have an electric bulb lit in India way back in 1905, has to go a long way on the modernization track. Work is still on to relocate the high tension lines by taking them underground. According to Bescom officials, almost 60% of the high power lines have been taken underground connecting the newer compact sub-stations. Now, even low-tension lines with about 220 or 440 volts of power are going underground.
The central areas of the city like M G Road, Commercial Street, Raj Bhavan Road and Vidhana Soudha have underground power lines. Still,
several peripheral parts of the city have overhead high tension lines hanging precariously near residential and office buildings.
Underground cable works are yet to be completed in many areas across the city like Peenya, Whitefield, Hosur Road and on HAL Airport Road, besides the new residential areas that have come up in the
outer parts of the city.
According to Bescom managing director Tushar Girinath, underground cables are laid when road widening works are taken up and in almost all the central parts of the city, underground power lines are in place. Girinath has sought an inquiry into Saturday’s tragic incident of electrocution and the report will be submitted by his officials in the next three days.

Residents of Rustumbagh Layout off HAL Airport Road live dangerously