Nepalese electricity authorities have given service providers 45 days to manage cable television, internet, and telephone wires.
NEA issued a public notice today setting standards for the structures that should be placed on electric poles for telecommunication, cable TV, and internet services. They should be managed accordingly by service providers.
The NEA has urged telecommunications, cable TV, and internet service providers to manage their structures within the given deadline. This is in order to minimize accidents, including fires, to provide reliable electricity service, and to maintain urban beauty.
“This will result in the authority removing wires as per the Nepal Electricity Authority Act-1984, and the guilty service provider will be liable for any loss incurred.” Silwal said.
“Tangled electrical and cable wires hanging from utility poles are not only unsightly, but they also pose a fire hazard and affect the power supply,” he said. As a means of maintaining the beauty of the city and reducing electrical incidents, the city has established standard criteria for managing wires and equipment from various service providers.
In accordance with the authority’s guidelines, optical fibres/cables, power lines, and the ground surface must be separated by a minimum distance.
According to the latest guidelines, the minimum distance between 400-volt bare wires and cables should be 80 centimeters and 30 centimeters, respectively; the minimum distance between 11 kV and 33 kV lines and cables should be two metres, while the minimum distance between cables and 400-volt devices should be 75 centimeters. It has also specified that the recommended gap between optical fibre cables and footpath should be 2.4 metres. In the case of roads that gap should be 5.5 metres.
NEA may bar service providers from providing services through service cables if they are unable to maintain the minimum gap.
To prevent falling or shaking of devices such as routers and optical fibre distribution boxes, the devices should be mounted on the same pole. Moreover, they should be properly wired using clips. Guidelines further state that wires and other devices that are not in use should be removed immediately.
The NEA has also requested service providers to place cable tags to identify their wires.