NTA steps up to manage hideous wire mesh on roadside poles

Kathmandu - The Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has started removing the overhead cable and wire mesh cluttering the roadside poles in the Capital. 

The electric, telephone wires and cables jumbled and dangling in a web like structure from the poles have contributed in disfiguring the city's beauty. The unmanaged utility wires have also been posing security risk and contributing towards irregularities in revenue collection, Minister for Information and Communications Mohan Bahadur Basnet said as he cut down the tangled wires on a pole at Maitighar. 

"The Energy Ministry is forwarding the effort to set up underground wire network with support of the Asian Development Bank and there are discussions for broadening the roads," Minister Basnet shared. 

The Information Ministry had earlier summoned the concerned authority to identify the wires but could not continue the effort to manage the hideous wires. 

NTA Chairman, Digambar Jha, said the security risk posed by the jumbles of wires at a single location and the possibilities of accidents that could occur by wires getting in the way of motorbikes and vehicles necessitated the step for removing the cable and telephone wires. 

The NTA plans to manage the wires for now and lay them underground in future. The authority has already allocated budget for setting up the underground wire network.