India : Rajasthan bans installation of new mobile towers

Published the 7 Dec 2009 on indiatimes.com

In a major setback to Telecom companies, Rajasthan government has banned the installation of new mobile towers in the state. The
installation would now be governed by a policy, which is in the drawing board of the urban development and housing department (UDH).

“We have directed mobile companies to stop installation of mobile towers till the new policy is enforced. The draft of the proposed policy is in place and it will be implemented in next few days,” says a UDH official.

The policy is aimed at regulation the proliferation of mobile towers in high population density areas. “There have been a few studies which say that electro magnetic radiation emitting from these towers are a threat to human health. There has to be some check on these towers especially in residential and institutional areas,” he said.

Apart from that, the department is also planning to link installation with revenue generation for the local body. “We have proposed to levy Rs 1 lakh per tower as registration fee to be deposited with local body. The telecom company will then have to pay a fixed amount every month as rental to the concerned local body.

It will be applicable to even those towers which had already been installed,” he said. There are seven telecom operators with more than mobile 15000 towers in the state. According to the sources, the new policy would bar installation of any such tower in a medical or educational institution. In fact, permission to install such towers would be given for only open spaces like parks and agricultural land.

“In case of residential areas, the rule states, the company will have to get a no-objection certificate from the resident welfare association. Moreover, the tower would be held illegal if it has been installed in any illegally constructed building,” he said. The policy would prescribe set norms for these companies.

The service provider will be required to produce a certificate from a registered structural engineer that the tower and the building on which it has been installed is safe.

Apart from that they will have to produce No Objection Certificate (NOC) from agencies like the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and certificate of safety from competent authorities.