City needs VND14 trillion to put cables underground

Pham Quoc Bao, deputy general director of the power corporation, said yesterday that the corporation would carry out the project to remove all messy overhead low- and medium-voltage power and telecom cables along 340 main streets with a combined length of 5,000 kilometers in the 2011-2020 period.

The corporation announced the project yesterday after receiving the final approval from the city government early this month for carrying out the project.       

For the first phase of the project between now and 2015, the corporation will focus on putting underground low- and medium-voltage power wires and telecom cables along main streets in District 1 and District 3. Bao said the budget for implementing the first phase of the project would be about VND6.5 trillion.

"Firstly, in 2011, the corporation will start with 19 streets with a total length of 60 kilometers," he said.

Work will start first on some of the downtown streets, including Ton Due Thang, Le Duan, Dong Khoi, Nguyen Hue, Le Loi, Ham Nghi and Tran Hung Dao.

For the second phase from 2016 to 2020, the corporation will continue the job an all remaining main streets with a total budget of some VND7.5 trillion.

Bao also said during the time for digging trenches along the pavements to put cables underground, the corporation would try not to trouble the daily activities of local people.

In 2010, HCMC Power Corporation successfully carried out a pilot plan of putting messy electricity and telecom cables along the 2.5 kilometer stretch of Tran Hung Dao Street in District 1 between Nguyen Van Cu and Nguyen Cu Trinh streets with a total budget of VND50 billion.

The HCMC Power Corporation manages 400 kilometers of 110kV cables, 5,080 kilometers of 15kV power lines and 9,500 kilometers of lower-voltage lines. The city has over 20 telecommunications companies with hundreds of thousands of kilometers of cables and power posts.