Dozens of utility poles stand along Luong The Vinh Street, which runs 700 m in Thanh Xuan and Nam Tu Liem Districts, with entangled bundles of electricity and telecom cables.
"These electrical cables have been dangling in front of my house for at least 10 years now," Nguyen Huy, a man living on Bang Liet Street in Hoang Mai District, said.
"On rainy and windy days, you have to strain your eyes and carefully check if any wire has been cut before getting out of the house."
He recently cut off some of the unused electrical wires.
On De La Thanh Street in Dong Da District, a shopkeeper hang tires on bundles of cables for selling.
A power box and cables are almost covered by garbage on Tran Quoc Vuong Street in Cau Giay District.
A tree on Phan Trong Hue Street in Thanh Tri District is used as a pole for telecom cables, with a connector placed inside a plastic bottle.
A worker wriggles through electric wires to change high voltage bulbs in an alley off Luong The Vinh Street in Nam Tu Liem District. "The wires are too tangled, and it took nearly an hour to climb up to fix the problem."
Hanoi started to lay telecom and electricity cables underground on 210 streets seven years ago.
The People's Committee, the city's administration, recently announced plans to bury the cables on another 300 streets by 2025. The city will seek private investment for installing underground cables on 45 streets in four inner-city districts, Hoan Kiem, Ba Dinh, Dong Da, and Hai Ba Trung.
