Pune, India, July 21, 2007: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to map of all utility lines across the city in the next three months. And also have a GIS to monitor them along with the recently prepared digitised map of the city roads, a network of around 2,800 kms. The software to be designed will also be used to keep track of the work carried out on each road and information such as the type of work and the date it was carried out will be available so that there is no duplication of work.
The civic administration does not have any map of utility lines on the city roads. Therefore, it is no surprise that utility lines get damaged during road work causing inconvenience to citizens on a regular basis. In addition to causing inconvenience to citizens of a particular area, such damage to utility lines also increases the cost of subsequent repair work.
With the mapping of utility lines and a GIS in place, the PMC will have detailed information on the number of utility lines on any particular road and their exact underground location. The PMC is starting off by mapping utility lines of the municipal corporation including electricity cable network and telephone cable network. For this, the civic administration will take the help of MSEDCL and BSNL. The utility map will be handed over to contractors so that they don’t damage the utility lines while carrying out work on the road.
To avoid digging of roads for laying utility lines by various departments, the PMC has communicated to all the departments concerned that permission will not be given for any digging of city roads during monsoon, except for emergency work, that too only with the approval of zonal commissioners.
Its an initiative that is expected to put to an end the blame game that starts between the various public service departments once these utility lines get damaged.
