Mumbai: Ward officials to report illegal digging to cops

The dug-up footpath where the copper wires were stolen from. Pic/X

The BMC administration has instructed all assistant commissioners and ward-level officers to immediately report to the police any unauthorised digging in the area under their supervision. The direction comes after thieves dug up a footpath in Matunga and stole copper phone cables.

A few days ago, robbers stole the wires installed along a nearly 200-metre-long stretch of footpath on Babasaheb Ambedkar Marg. "The property of BMC and MTNL was damaged due to this unauthorised digging. The corporation lodged a complaint with the police on May 17 and MTNL filed a case at Matunga police station on May 30," said a BMC official.

"On Tuesday, the BMc sent another letter to Matunga police requesting them to increase night patrolling on Babasaheb Ambedkar Road and in nearby areas," said Chakrapani Alley, assistant municipal commissioner of F North ward. Meanwhile, the BMC has taken up work of refilling the footpath to avoid inconvenience to the locals due to the onset of monsoon.

What happened
MTNL had started receiving a large number of complaints from customers about dead telephones, after which the company checked and found that cables it had laid under the footpath along Ambedkar Road, between Dadar TT Circle and Maheshwari Udyan, had been stolen. Someone had dug up the footpath and stolen around 103 metres of copper cable worth Rs 6.78 lakh from near the bus stop at Babasaheb Ambedkar Marg. All six accused in the case have been arrested.