Mumbai: BMC untangles overhead utility wires in South Mumbai

Updated On: 02 September, 2019 07:03 AM IST | | Prajakta Kasale

Decades after defying BMC rule that had ordered all overhead utility wires to go underground, authorities finally force South Mumbai to toe the line

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A BMC worker cuts off wires on Nagdevi street; the wire-free stretch post-civic body action a couple of weeks ago

While most of the city was quick to send all its overhead utility wires underground in the early 1990s following BMC's strict diktat, south Mumbai, with its painfully narrow lanes, decided not to. In August, however, following the umpteenth time the fire brigade was halted in its tracks, this time while trying to fight a major fire inside the 112-year-old Tyeb Building in the narrow Abdul Rehman Street at Crawford Market, BMC decided enough was enough. So, why exactly did it take so long?

Post the Tyeb Building fire incident on August 3, the BMC quickly got down to work and cleared the overhead cables from Abdul Rehman Street. However, Vinayak Vispute, officer of B Ward said that such cables are visible on almost all streets in Crawford Market and Dongri areas. One of the fire officers, on condition of anonymity, told mid-day, "Our vehicles are larger than other vehicles and hence, we face a lot of issues while entering the narrow streets of South Mumbai."