Tangled Mess: Pillar boxes eat up public space in Amritsar

Neeraj Bagga

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Amritsar, December 13

The mess created by tangled webs of electricity wires and optical cables at nearly every street in the walled city has become an eyesore for visitors and residents.

Huge heavily insulated conductors, which are meant to be laid underground, are routed overhead without bothering about the risks involved.

A retired professor from Khalsa College Mohan Singh recalled that in the 1940s when the city had a limited power supply from Joginder Nagar and only 1KW connections were available to consumers, that too on merit. An official would inspect the wiring and route of the connection. These days, routing a cable is not a specialised skill but an ad hoc arrangement. These days one can take liberties with the system without any check or hindrance.

Power pilferage and line losses shot up to over 50 per cent of the power produced. The system of shifting energy meters to huge 20-m boxes to check power theft has taken a toll on the aesthetic look of the city and created a hurdle in the smooth flow of traffic.

The PSPCL’s failure to curb power thefts led to the installation of the pillar boxes on the roads. A move that encroaches upon vital public space, said Arjinder Singh. “The project of installation of the pillar boxes on the streets to take out electric meters from inside the residences was envisaged to curb power theft and pilferage. After investing crores of rupees and massive infrastructure changeover the theft rate declined has not been equally impressive,” he claimed.

He said the pillar boxes installed on 10-15 feet wide roads encroach upon vital space meant for public movement. They further narrowed down the public space. He suggested that these pillar boxes of small sizes should be hung from the pillars installed on the roads. He said the PSPCL had done this successfully in several areas and these must be replicated in all its future programmes.

On the condition of anonymity PSPCL officials stated that the installation of the pillar boxes or laying of insulated conductors were policy decisions taken at the head office level and then implemented in the entire state. These observations would be forwarded to the head office for future consideration.