Entangled Mess: Loose, Hanging Wires Pose Threat to Delhiites as Rains Arrive
A woman was electrocuted at a Delhi railway station after she grabbed an electric pole that had loose wires hanging.
People in Delhi's Paharganj now use these overhead wires for hanging clothes.
Photo Credit: Ribhu Chatterjee/The Quint
Wifi cables can be seen hanging in one of the bylanes of Chandni Chowk.
Mohd. Farzan, a resident of the Jama Masjid area, said, "I have been seeing all this since the age of 12–13 years, and till date I have not seen the condition of these wires changing here."
Every day, multiple people cross these hanging, naked wires without any precaution in Delhi's Chandni Chowk area.
These uninsulated wires pose a big threat to the residents of Old Delhi. Despite complaints by residents over the years, little has changed here.
Mohd. Rehan, who has lived in the Jama Masjid area for over 40 years, lamented, "Pehle ek cable hoti thi jis se saare area ki supply chalti thi... Ab 10 hai. Yeh sab hamare saamne extend hua hai ek-ek karke. (Earlier, there used to be a single cable that ran the supply for the entire area. Now there are 10 cables. All of them have been extended in front of us, one by one.)"
A loudspeaker,a kurta, overhead wires: a scene from Delhi's Meena Bazaar area.
Residents are now so used to these overhead wires that they have learnt to live with them.
In fact, shopkeepers now use them as a landmark for their shops.
Rohit Sagar, a resident of central Delhi's Paharganj, said that he has been "living in this mess for 35 years now. Many of us complained about it but our requests have gone unheard."
Many such overhead wires can be seen dangling over the makeshift shops in Old Delhi's Meena Bazaar area.
Paharganj resident Rohit Sagar said,
"These wires create lot of problems, especially when a car comes. The wires are hanging so low that they end up touching the vehicle. In fact, there was a short-circuit twice which led to a power cut too, but it was fixed when a complaint was lodged."
The stalls on the footpath in the bylanes of Delhi's Chandni Chowk have been using these wires for displaying their products.
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