Hyderabad Faces Rising Electrocution Risk Due to Dangling Electric Wires
There is an increasing rate of death in Hyderabad due to electrocution through hanging power lines. The officials confront the dire demand to repair the infrastructure and apply safety regulations as more than 15 people died in the last several onths, and 2,200 people died all over the state during three years.
Hyderabad: Electrocution cases are on a rise in a state of alarm and every place in the city has loosely fixed electric wires as a big danger to life. In just the past few months alone, at least 15 individuals’ lives have been lost, which clearly reveals major gaps in the interventions provided to overlooked overhead power lines throughout Hyderabad.
Electric poles are put at a short distance- every 30 to 40 meters- in the vicinity of homes and workplaces. But all of these have many low-tension wires attached to them, almost tangling with the ground. Although the Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TGSPDCL) has insisted that high-tension wires are already under control, low-lines still remain a considerable risk factor.
The effect is already becoming tragic. In one such case five victims lost their lives in Ramanthapur, when some private cable wire was spotted entangling with a live 11KV line. On another instance, a footpath resident in LB Nagar was electrocuted due to an encountered snapped wire. Preparation of a festival has also become fatal with a few workers being electrocuted during the erection of decorations in preparation of the Independence Day and Janmashtami festivals.
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In line with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Telangana is the leader in electrocution death with over 2,200 deaths reported between 2020 and 2022 with almost 800 reported in 2020 alone. Separate experts attribute the crisis to the existence of unauthorized wiring, inadequate application of safety provisions and misuse of electric poles by street vendors.
Whereas the TGSPDCL officials criticize that illegal cabling and citizen carelessness all constitute a large part of the risk, residents and civic organizations seek to impose improved supervision, superior intergovernmental cooperation and enhanced safety rules. The action appeals are becoming louder and louder; the city of Hyderabad is still growing at an alarming rate hence electrical safety is an alarming urban issue.
The proponents of public safety urge that the real solution is the all-encompassing solution- to remove unauthorized connections, to reinforce overhead and to educate people to the risks of electric pole tampering. Unless something is done soon, the picture will be that the streets of Hyderabad are littered with unknown but lethal dangers.
