• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Much like other urban cities in the country, overhead wires crisscrossing the streets and thoroughfares can be unsightly and messy, often considered as eyesores.
Starting next year, this may no longer be the case along a portion of a major thoroughfare in Bacolod City, as Negros Electric and Power Corp. (Negros Power) took the initiative of launching the one-kilometer Underground Distribution System (UDS) Project along Lacson Street.
The project, which will kick off January next year, aimed at placing all overhead wires to be underground, Negros Power president and chief executive officer Roel Castro said.
It will start from 5th Street going to Ramos area (Benigno Aquino Drive) with a budget of about P80 million, Castro said.
It is expected to be completed before the Masskara Festival in October, he added.
This is part of the six-kilometer UDS targeted to be implemented in Bacolod City, with funding to be taken from P2- billion capital expenditures earmarked for all the projects in the distribution utility franchise area of Negros Power, Castro further said.
Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, Lone District Rep. Greg Gasataya and Negros Occidental Vice Gov. Jeffrey Ferrer lauded the initiative of Negros Power, which they considered as historic and a milestone for Bacolod City.
Noting that majority of overhead wires came from telecommunication and cable companies, Benitez said he suggested to the Sangguniang Panlungsod to include in the proposed underground cabling ordinance the establishment of a coordinating body.
Led by the local government unit, it will ensure coordination between Negros Power, telecommunication and cable companies in the implementation of the underground cabling project.
Telecommunication and cable companies, which will be part of the UDS, should also share in the cost so that it can be laid thoroughly in the city, the mayor said.
Negros Power has started to fulfill its promise to deliver better and much improved services to its consumers in its franchise area, the officials said.
Bernard Bailey del Castillo, Negros Power chief operating officer, said that by removing the overhead lines, trees can go as high as they wish, and there is no need to worry about animal intrusions that have caused power outages.
A study of Negros Power showed that 15 percent of power outages came from vegetation and calamities that hit the wires.
The underground cabling system has long been adapted by progressive cities in Southeast Asia.
For compact urban areas, having underground cabling will free up precious spaces compared to overhead wiring where poles take up space that could have been used for roads or sidewalks. | GB
