Thamel business likely to suffer for more days

Providing internet service through underground cable system is challenging

Kathmandu, December 26

Tourism enterprises in Thamel area which have been deprived of landline telephone and internet services continue to be affected, as campaigners involved in clearing the area of dangling wires said the drive will take a few more days.

Thamel Tourism Development Council had launched the drive to remove all types of wires dangling from utility poles from December 15. The Council had said it would remove all the dangling wires within a week, allowing telephone and internet services to resume afterwards. But, 11 days after the campaign began, TTDC officials said a few more days were needed to completely clear the tourist hub of the dangling wires. Punya Ram Lageju Treasurer of TTDC said they faced hardships while clearing the messy wires, which prolonged the work. The work was also halted for three days for Christmas celebration in the area.

“We encountered some problems while initiating the drive. Now since everything has been settled it will take only a few more days to rid Thamel of messy wires,” Lageju said.

Internet Service Providers’ Association of Nepal, which had been strongly lobbying against the campaign said they had no options but to provide internet services through wires distributed from utility poles.

Majority of the wires removed from utility poles belonged to internet service providers and Nepal Telecommunication Authority.

A recently held joint meeting of all stakeholders including TTDC and ISPAN had reached a three point agreement to curb existing problem of dangling wires.

The agreement said wires of all kinds inside one square kilometre of core Thamel area should be provided through underground ducting within three months.

Until underground ducting is carried out all the internet service providers should clip wires on the walls of houses, which needed to be removed once underground ducting is completed.

Bhoj Raj Bhat, chair of ISPAN, however, strongly opposed the idea of clipping wires on the walls of private houses as convincing the house owners would be a tough deal. He also said underground ducting in country like Nepal was not easy as every day the public and the government bodies are found digging the road for multiple purposes like drinking water supply and sewerage management.

“If TTDC had sought our help before abruptly cutting the wires, we would have provided a better solution,” Bhat said.

He also said fixing new wires to resume services might take from one to two months. TTDC said they had informed all stakeholders and published a public notice on a national daily days before the campaign began.