I took this picture recently on the streets of Coimbatore. You can take
such pictures anywhere in the country. The practice of putting up with shoddy
wiring exemplifies the “chalta hai” (it will do!) attitude to construction and
maintenance. Our engineers may be great in publishing new algorithms, but when
it comes to wiring by technicians, they will put up with anything that works
for the moment. The worst mess in India is made by cable TV service providers.
There is no regulation of their wiring, which jumps across streets, spans
distances no engineer would dream of, and even invades tree branches in parks.
The phone and
Internet connection of a resident in our building was cut last week by mistake
when somebody was reconnecting wires in the junction box in the electrical room.
He was there with the phone company’s technician when wires were re-connected.
The junction box was a complete rat’s nest of wires, tangled and intertwined
with one another. It's easy to see how someone could make a mistake and cut the
wrong wires since nothing is labelled or cleanly visible. It is not uncommon to
hear your phone ring and hear a technician asking you your flat number! That is
often the only way he can figure out which wire goes where. No one seems to
have heard of any wiring standards.
India is proud to
have over 18 million wired Internet connections and 28 million wireline telephones.
You are lucky when they are working. Any day a small change has to be made to
accommodate new connections near your residence, there is a good chance that
your connection will stop working!
Swachh Bharat (a
clean India), yes! Let us also have an untangled India, in which wiring follows
some discipline and can be maintained without messing around.
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