HCM City (VNA) - Residents have welcomed efforts to move electrical wires andtelecommunication cables underground in downtown HCM City.

By 2020, almost all overhead electrical wires in the city’s inner districtswill be buried, according to HCM City Power Corporation under Electricity of Vietnam(EVN HCM City).

In suburban areas, the work will be carried out first in crowded areas nearadministrative centres or malls.

It isexpected that by 2025, overhead electrical wires will have completelydisappeared in the city.

In2009, HCM City People’s Committee approved a proposal to move electrical andtelecommunication wires underground to improve the city’s image and safety. TheEVN HCM City was assigned with carrying out the task.

Hoang Oanh, a store owner on VoThi Sau street in District 3, said that locals used to worry about the bundleof telecom cables in front of her store because it sagged down under its ownweight and looked like it could collapse at any time.

Once the cables are cleared, herneighborhood feels much less claustrophobic, Oanh said.

Overhead intertwined electrical wires and telecom cables, locally referred toas ‘spider webs’, have been a characteristic of big cities like Hanoi and HCMCity for years.

“Streets look safer and larger when electrical wires are buried,” a residentThi Hoang Thuong told the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, adding that crowdedstreets with overhead electrical wires made the atmosphere stuffy.

Tran Van Hoan, vice director of Saigon Power Company, a branch of EVN HCM City, said that electrical wires on40 streets in District 1 and District 3 had been buried.

Thisyear, the company expected to complete the work Le Thi Hong Gam, Nguyen Thai Binh,Nguyen Cong Tru, Le Cong Kieu, Pho Duc Chinh and Yersin streets, he said.

“Besidesworking on major roads, the company expanded to alleys. This year, we plan tobury electrical wires in eight alleys and next year, 29 others in the citycentre,” Hoan said.

Deputy General Director of EVN HCMCity Pham Quoc Bao said that city authorities plan to buryanother 650km of medium-voltage and 1,150km of low-voltage cables, focusing onmain streets in Districts 1 and 3 between 2016 and 2020, the Tuoi tre newspaperreported.

Between 2011 and 2015, 104 projects were carried out on 62 main streets, with358km of medium-voltage and 620km of low-voltage cables buried underground.

Up to now, 60 percent of the work was completed, Bao said.

When the electrical wires were buried, electrical boxes were built to connectthe underground power grid to households, with the boxes an essential part ofthe network, Bao responded to residents’ concerns over the safety of the boxes.

Written on the boxes are warnings “Danger! Don’t approach!”, which scaredpeople from having them near their houses.

Bao said that the company would ask constructors to make the boxes lookfriendlier.-VNA