Navi Mumbai: NMMC to change 17k electric poles installed by CIDCO & MIDC over 20-years-ago

Navi Mumbai: The work of installing around 17,000 new electric poles is underway. The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) and the civic body expects that the work will be completed in the next few months. The majority of the electric poles have become over 20 years old as they were installed by CIDCO and MIDC.

In 2020, it was noticed that electricity poles fell at 28 places in the city and 5 people were also seriously injured. A large number of vehicles were damaged.

Decision taken at General Body meeting of NMMC in February 2020

Considering the situation, the civic body decided to replace the damaged and rusted electric poles and a proposal was cleared in the General Body meeting of NMMC in February 2020.

“The installation and creation of the necessary infrastructure for electricity in various nodes of Navi Mumbai was done in 1970 by CIDCOand later gradually transferred to NMMC in 1998. Also, in 2005, the lighting system in the industrial sector was transferred to the NMMC by MIDC.

The city has a total of around 31,000 electric poles of which 5000 electric poles were replaced from time to time for various reasons. In 2020, the civic body started replacing around 17,000 damaged electric poles. “Out of 17,000, approximately 13,000 damaged MS electric poles have been replaced and longer-life GI octagonal electric poles have been installed there. As per CPW criteria, their life expectancy is generally stated to be 25 years,” said an official from the civic electricity department.

In addition, the civic body is also changing cable as they are underground. “It was noticed from time to time that the said cable breaks and gets damaged while digging the roads for various works. Since the lifespan of the underground cable is usually 20 years, the system could not have remained functional if the electric poles had not been replaced by the cables. Therefore, along with pole replacement, cable replacement is mandatory,” added the official.