All Chithirai, Masi Streets around Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple to get underground power cables

Finance Minister inagurated the work at a cost of ₹11.53 crore

The four Chithirai and Masi Streets around Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple would soon be free of overhead electric wires as TANGEDCO started the work to lay underground electric cables.

State Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Tuesday formally inaugurated the ₹11. 53-crore project in the presence of Madurai Mayor, Indirani Ponvasanth.

Under the Smart City Project, already the duct for power cables have been constructed in all the Chithirai and Masi Streets.

Every time, the car festival of the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple is held, electricity in all the Masi and Chithirai streets has to be switched off as a precautionary measure.

“Besides, overhead power cables have to be removed in the five stretches to enable the moving of the car. It takes at least one hour to fix the overhead electric cable,” said Assistant Executive Engineer, (Distribution - Koil), of TANGEDCO, M. Kandasamy, said.

As part of the work, high tension over head power cable for 9.617 km and low tension overhead power cables for 18.659 km along with around 400 electric poles in all the eight streets would be removed.

Instead of the electric poles of low tension power cables, pillar boxes would be set up on the road margins to provide power connections to around 9,500 consumers in these streets. One cable for high tension power and two cables for low tension would be laid.