New Delhi, July 25 -- The Delhi government's ambitious project to replace overhead electric wires with underground cabling is expanding to new areas, including Janakpuri, Malviya Nagar and Safdarjung Development Area, officials said on Friday.
Earlier this month, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta launched a pilot project at BH Block in her Shalimar Bagh constituency for shifting overhead electric lines underground. The project will be completed in three months at a cost of Rs 8 crore.
It was said by her that her government planned to expand the project in other parts of the national capital as well.
After Shalimar Bagh, the project is now being expanded to the C4E Block area of Janakpuri, the officials said. Delhi Power Minister Ashish Sood is MLA of Janakpuri constituency in West Delhi. According to the officials, plans of further expanding the project in areas like Malviya Nagar, Safdarjung Development Area (SDA) and Shahdara are in pipeline and the work will start after administrative approval is received.
The Jankpuri project being executed by the discom BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) involves shifting around two kilometers of overhead low tension (LT) electrical cables by around 2.5 Kms of underground LT feeder cables and 2,400 meters of service cables, a discom source said.
The new underground network incorporates 15 strategically placed feeder pillars. It will cover 13 key lanes in the area including Major P Srikumar Marg, Shani Bazar Road, Ram Mandir Marg among others.
Installation of the feeder pillars is currently underway and cable-laying activities have also started. The work is expected to be completed by the end of August, they said.
Timely completion of the project hinges on timely road-cutting permissions from civic bodies, they said. The C4E Block in Janakpuri was strategically chosen based on practical considerations such as space availability for new infrastructure and density of existing overhead networks, the officials said.
The discom sources said that the pilot projects involve advanced technological solutions such as fully automated fault restoration terminal units (FRTUs) for remote detection of any faults within 15 minutes. Also, IoT (internet of things) based sensors will provide real-time monitoring for maintenance and load management.
Undergrounding of electricity cables means the residents in an area face minimum disruption in supply due to accidental breaking of wires and uprooting of poles which happens often during storms and rains, said a discom official. The Janakpuri pilot being executed by BSES is set to pave the way for a comprehensive transition from overhead to underground electricity networks across many parts of Delhi, thereby significantly boosting urban infrastructure, he said. The work involves practical challenges while shifting the cables underground as there are many assets beneath the surface like water and sewerlines. Also, some areas are very narrow and rocky where digging is tough due to public and traffic movement. Another challenge is getting road cutting permissions in time, he added.
The Delhi government allocated Rs 100 crore in the budget 2025-26, for the project to shift overhead electric cables in the city underground.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.