OFC menace persists in Bengaluru as new GBA regulations remain pending

The dangling and low-hanging Optical Fibre Cables (OFCs) continue to pose a threat to pedestrians and motorists in Bengaluru, even as fresh bylaws to tighten regulations governing the use of roads for OFCs await discussion at the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA).A reality check by The Hindu shows that even busy stretches in the city, such as Hosur Road, Mysore Road, Indiranagar 100 Feet Road, Brigade Road, Bannerghatta Road and Koramangala 80 Feet Road (Ganesh Temple), have cables hanging low, bunched to trees, snapped and lying on footpaths and roads.For instance, JNC Road in Koramangala is one of the busiest stretches on all days and sees an increased crowd on weekends. A private college located on the stretch makes it crucial, with hundreds of students using it every day. In addition, several restaurants located on the adjoining street bring thousands of people to the locality.Aarti, a student of the private college, said that snapped OFCs are a common sight on the stretch, and such a situation, compounded by haphazard parking along the stretch, makes it impossible for pedestrians to walk, especially during rush hours.“There is a severe parking issue on this stretch, which hasn’t been addressed. Hundreds of students walk to the bus stop near Hosur Road, and the entire way of about 600 metres is flooded with such cables,” she said.Connectivity woesPravar Choudhary, an architect, pointed out that stretches with wider footpaths, such as Indiranagar 100 Feet Road, are also covered with bunched cables, creating safety issues. “More people will start accessing footpaths if obstructions like OFCs are eliminated,” he said.Several daily commuters who access public transport said such obstructions affect first and last-mile connectivity, leading to increased vehicles on roads and congestion. Despite being a perennial issue that adds to the flawed pedestrian infrastructure, the civic body has failed to strictly enforce rules and curb illegal OFC connections.Previous enforcementAccording to data from the erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), between 2012 and 2025, aggregators established over 15,000 km of OFC lines within the city limits. Since 2023, OFC permissions were put on hold until mid-2025. However, 150 km of OFC lines were illegally created by aggregators.Meanwhile, data also shows that the civic body imposed fines in only 118 instances for violating OFC rules between 2017 and 2022. A senior GBA official said that since permissions were temporarily put on hold, the civic body hasn’t imposed fines thereafter. However, according to other sources, there wasn’t much vigil, and illegal connections had been established despite a blanket ban.A city corporation commissioner told The Hindu that the OFC subject is still centralised and managed at the GBA level, leaving little scope for corporations to fully enforce the rules. “To disconnect and remove illegal connections, ground-level data is unavailable. Without granular information, we cannot clear illegal OFC lines,” he said, stressing that it will disrupt the internet services.Another officer said that many telecom aggregators are shifting to underground ducts, but there is also a court case related to the shifting, and once that is cleared, enforcing the underground OFC mandate will be relatively easy. “Many aggregators were not on board with paying separate fees for moving to underground ducts, and this escalated,” he said.The GBA officer explained that to address the OFC issues, bylaws were drafted earlier this year, tightening regulations by specifying the requirements for laying cables, the structures that can be used and the length of cables. “The bylaws draft was proposed twice, but there is no movement yet. It has to be discussed in the executive committee meeting, but the topic hasn’t come up yet,” the officer said.Continues to haunt peopleThe OFC menace continues to be unresolved even as the city corporations have taken up footpath clearance drives.Dhruv N.K., a civic activist from South Bengaluru, said pedestrian infrastructure is a complex issue with multiple factors, with OFCs being a major issue. “GBA’s initiative to improve pedestrian infrastructure is limited to clearing street vendors and fails to cover more contributing aspects such as OFC, broken footpaths, and drains uncovered with slabs. Acting on easy targets and not addressing other issues defeats the purpose,” he said.Clement Jayakumar of Mahadevapura Task Force added that the GBA should at least focus on clearing cables hanging lower than 10 metres. “There is also a design issue when it comes to connecting multiple lines. With the bylaws, there is a need for redrawing the design for establishing multiple connections from one common point,” he said, adding that it will address the low-hanging wires issue as well.