The report comes in from Gurgaon where the telecom operators will very soon be allowed to set up mobile phone towers on government buildings and land across the city. A meeting of the district telecom committee was held chaired by deputy commissioner Nishant Yadav on Tuesday where this decision was taken. This move will not only help in reducing the number of complaints against mobile towers from residential areas but also generate additional revenue for the government.
Why on Government Buildings?
According to a report from ET Telecom, Nishant Yadav who chaired the committee said in a statement that it was brought to the notice that installing mobile towers on private properties involves a lot of effort. Due to this reason, the decision has been taken to allow telecom operators to install mobile phone towers on government buildings which will also help raise additional revenue for the government. He further informed that city magistrate Darshan Yadav has been asked to prepare a list of government buildings and sites and share it with the telecom companies.
In addition to this, to allow MGC to check the legal status of the mobile phone towers, the committee has also directed all the telecom companies to submit the details of all mobile phone towers in the city within a week. It is to be noted that the telecom operators have three months to regularise their unauthorised mobile phone towers. An estimation suggests that Gurgaon has around 2,000 mobile towers and applications for over 700 more are currently pending with the district administration. The license fee for a mobile phone tower is around Rs 1 lakh per year.
Yadav informed that the mobile towers will be sealed if the telecom operators fail to legalise their mobile phone towers within the stipulated time. It has also been instructed to all the departments to resolve the issues related to the pending applications of mobile phone towers in a time-bound manner. Raman Mallik who is a member of the committee informed that the plan is to enhance the service of mobile networks and the internet in Gurgaon with zero pendency, zero illegality and no revenue loss to the government.
