After Kathmandu Metropolitan City started removing tangled mess of overhead cables from Monday in Kathmandu, internet service providers and cable TV operators have come forward to coordinate with the City.

On April 24, the KMC had issued a notice with a 15-day ultimatum warning that it would proceed to remove the wires if the internet service providers, cable TV operators and others ignored the request.

“Earlier, we were quite worried, but as we started our drive, 40 employees from internet service providers and cable TV operators coordinated with our team to clear the jumbled cables,” said Raju Nath Pandey, chief of City Police at the KMC.

After the indifference of government ministries and internet companies to remove tangled wires, Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah on May 5 had taken to social media to express his dissatisfaction. Through his Facebook Post, he had hinted that City may unilaterally move ahead with its plan to remove the tangled cables.

“This might have worked as cable service providers have joined us in the drive,” said Pandey.

Officials said in the past two days, Monday and Tuesday, the City removed six trucks of jumbled cables off utility poles in Maitighar and New Road.

Although the City had announced it would start the drive on Sunday, it postponed the schedule for Monday after holding meetings with communication service providers, who decided to cooperate with the City.

Pandey said that in hanging cables on electricity poles, service providers are going against the guidelines set by the Nepal Electricity Authority.

In November last year, even the Nepal Electricity Authority had issued a 45-day ultimatum ordering service providers to remove messy cables in order to minimise accidents, including fires, and maintain urban beauty. The power utility’s order, however, didn’t yield results.

“None of them removed the old and unwanted cables from electric poles,” Pandey said. “Instead, they added more cables, and this led to the present situation.”

He said that a total of 50 personnels have been deployed to remove the cables off the poles.

Pandey added that it may take a long time to remove the cables as they need to differentiate essential and non-essential ones.

This is not the first time the City has come up with the drive. After being elected as Kathmandu mayor in May 2017, Bidya Sundar Shakya had also promised to manage the jumbled wires on utility poles. But Shakya failed to make good on that promise. The problem persists to this day and is now up to the new mayor Balendra Shah to untangle.