KARACHI: The city administration on Friday allowed cable operators two months to complete the work of laying their cables underground.

Official sources said that Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani presided over a meeting with the cable operators’ association, representatives of K-Electric and other stakeholders in this regard and said that work on laying underground cables should be done on priority basis.

The sources said it was decided in the meeting that cable operators would now be allowed to complete the laying of cables underground in one month’s time in red zone area and they would have further two months to complete the task in other parts of the city.

They said that the cable operators were also warned that heavy fines would be imposed on them if they failed to complete the task within stipulated time.

The sources said that the meeting also reviewed the progress of work being carried out in the city by the cable operators.

They said that the representative of the power utility pointed out that the cables on barbed wires had potential of electrocution.

The sources said that the KE representatives further said that the PTCL and other telecommunication companies also used poles of the power utility for providing communication facilities connecting banks, businesses and provision of utilities to the city.

They said that the commissioner made it clear that the cable operators would be solely responsible for repairing the road or footpaths dug up for the laying of the cables properly.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2019