Norms eased for cellphone towers

Unlike their counterparts in Noida,cellphone users in Delhi can relax. They can expect clear signals as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Wednesday indicated it would not take any steps to affect mobile network connectivity.

Unlike their counterparts in Noida,cellphone users in Delhi can relax. They can expect clear signals as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Wednesday indicated it would not take any steps to affect mobile network connectivity.

While MCD plans to eventually do away with unauthorised mobile towers in Delhi,it has decided not to seal any towers for now. The civic body has also come up with a revised set of guidelines that will ease installation of new mobile phone towers.

As per revised guidelines,cellular operators would have to pay MCD Rs 1 lakh for installation of each cellular tower the existing permission charge is Rs 5 lakh per site.

The MCD has also considered the demand of cellular operators for new mobile towers to cater to the growing subscriber base in the city: it has decided to give operators an opportunity to apply for regularisation of all unauthorised towers already installed.

The revised policy will be tabled for approval in the MCD Standing Committee meeting next week. Officials said rules have been relaxed to end the hazard of unauthorised mobile towers and to ensure connectivity is not affected.

Municipal Commissioner K S Mehra had earlier tabled a policy which prevented installation of mobile towers in residential areas. But under the revised guidelines,operators will be given an option to set up towers on community centres,municipal or government buildings,and commercial buildings in and around residential areas.

Meera Aggarwal,municipal councillor and member of the committee formed to draft the new policy,said operators can even set up towers in residential areas in special circumstances. In such cases,she said,operators will have to get a certificate from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India stating there are no such buildings in colonies where they want to set up these towers.

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Once the policy is approved,operators will get 20 days to apply for regularisation or to shift towers to another location.

Noida Authority asked to restore status of towers
The Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court on Wednesday ordered the Noida Authority to restore within 24 hours the status of mobile phone towers sealed by the Authority if they have met the standard norms essential for their construction. A Bench of Justices Pradeep Kant and Rituraj Awasthi passed the conditional order on the plea of Indus Towers,the company which had erected around 570 towers in Noida. In a two-day drive last weekend,Noida Authority had sealed around 130 towers.

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