Bhatti Vikramarka Studies Bengaluru Power Infrastructure

Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka today visited Bengaluru for an in-depth review of the city's large-scale underground cabling initiative undertaken by the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM).

The visit was part of the Telangana government's ongoing efforts to modernise urban infrastructure and improve the reliability, safety and aesthetics of power supply systems in rapidly growing metropolitan areas.

The day began with a high-level review meeting hosted by BESCOM officials. Presentations were made by Pankaj Pandey, Managing Director of the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited and the Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company, along with his team, on the Bengaluru Overhead (OH) to Underground (UG) Power Conversion Project - one of India's most comprehensive urban power infrastructure transformations.

Officials from the Telangana government, including TRANSCO CMD Krishna Bhaskar and SPDCL CMD Musharraf Faruqui, also participated in the discussions.

The project, launched in 2018-19, has already converted over 7,400 kilometres of 11kV OH lines and thousands of kilometres of low-tension lines into UG or aerial bunched (AB) cables.

A key innovation has been the laying of Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) ducts along the UG cable routes to enable future telecom leasing as a revenue stream.

Vikramarka raised several queries related to the project's design and implementation challenges. These included the financial structuring of the project - which involves loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and other public sector banks - and the reduction in technical losses and electrical accidents, which BESCOM confirmed had decreased by up to 2% since the UG implementation.

He also inquired about the readiness of the OFC infrastructure for commercial use. BESCOM responded that while ducts were in place, last-mile coordination with telecom operators and the BBMP was still ongoing.

The role of Ring Main Units (RMUs) in ensuring system reliability and reducing downtime during faults was also discussed.

Vikramarka expressed appreciation for the scale and the execution discipline of the project, and spoke of the importance of integrating these learnings into Telangana's upcoming urban grid modernisation programs, particularly the Future City initiative.

Later in the day, he visited a pilot site in Malleshwaram (15th Cross), where an underground distribution network - including an underground transformer (DTR) system - had been implemented. The site demonstrated how DTRs could be housed in fully buried chambers with accessible maintenance panels at street level, thereby freeing up urban space and improving safety.

During the field visit, Vikramarka interacted directly with the engineers and contractors on-site, reviewing safety protocols, load balancing techniques and provisions for emergency repairs. He said that such innovations could be especially valuable in Telangana's densely populated urban corridors.