MUMBAI: A major crackdown on cable TV operators is taking place in Chennai. 

The Chennai civic body, The Chennai Corporation has gone on a drive to collect infrastructure usage and registration charges from local cable TV operators in the city.

Sources in Chennai revealed that around 16 companies were given legal status after they coughed up Rs 1 crore to the corporation. Currently, the civic body charges Rs 9,400 per km as infrastructure use rent to cable TV and telecom operators, though a proposal to hike it to Rs 32,000 is pending with the government. 

The Chennai Corporation has been trying to clean up the city and had issued orders to its employees and staff to snap cables of the operators who did not pay up. It expects to collect another Rs 1 crore in the coming week. 

The civic body is expected to next streamline the way the cables have been strung over head all over Chennai, say officials.