Over the past four years, Hanoi has laid electrical and telecommunications cables underground on 140 out of 255 streets, Kinhtedothi.vn reported, citing a report by the municipal Department of Construction.

In particular, Viettel Telecommunications Corporation trenched 29 of its 68 routes, VNPT Hanoi buried 50 of 58 routes while MobiFone Telecommunications Corporation and FPT Telecom Joint Stock Company undergrounded 12 of 13 routes and 38 of 60 routes, respectively.

Hanoi sets target to build a city without overhead wires by synchronously burying underground electrical and telecommunications cables. Photo: Kinhtedothi.vn

In the first half of 2020, Hanoi dug trenches to lay power and telecommunications cables underground on 21 streets.

So far, the Department of Construction has compiled a list of 60 routes registered by businesses. It is expected that the Departments of Construction, Information and Communication will submit a list of streets where telecommunication lines will be undergrounded in July 2020 to the municipal People's Committee for approval.

The landscape of streets has been improved after trenching electrical and telecommunications cables. Electricity supply has been ensured and the number of electricity incidents has reduced.

Hanoi has set a target to build a city without overhead wires by synchronously burying underground electrical and telecommunications cables.

In order to continue the urban renewal plan, the Department of Construction has coordinated with the Department of Information and Communication and People's Committees of districts to draw up a list of streets where cables would be buried.

At present, 42 streets are in the process of consultation for undergrounding cables in 2020, according to the department.

Years ago, Hanoi’s landscape was dampened by utility poles with bunches of twisted cables and wires of cable television, electricity and internet. The municipal People's Committee had plans to bury them, getting rid of overhead lines.

The local government has invested to clear and bury these overhead lines. However, the funding source is not sufficient to do the undergrounding in many streets and alleys in districts.

In order to solve the difficulties, over the past time, the municipal government has signed investment cooperation agreements with Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group, Army Telecommunications Group and Hanoi Power Corporation to trench cables in some streets in the city in the period 2016 - 2020.

The undergrounding will be realized with the involvement of private resources, with the target that by the end of 2020 all the overhead lines in four downtown districts (about 320 streets) will be laid underground and the work will be expanded to other outlying districts.