After authorities shut down 33% of the mobile towers in the satellite town of Noida, the MCD is now planning to shut down 2,517 towers — almost 50% of the mobile towers here.
Millions of mobile users will find it difficult to stay connected if the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) goes ahead with its plan to close down many illegal mobile towers across the capital.
After authorities shut down 33% of the mobile towers in the satellite town of Noida, the MCD is now planning to shut down 2,517 towers — almost 50% of the mobile towers here.
Telecom regulators have set up a committee with chief minister Sheila Dikshit to look into the issue. “A committee has been set up, which includes the CM, me and some department of telecommunications (DoT) officials. We are collectively trying to resolve the issue,” said SC Khanna, secretary general, Association of Unified Service Providers of India (AUSPI).
Noida authorities had shut down 200 illegal mobile towers on Monday. Noida has 576 mobile towers. Delhi has 4,532. MCD says 2,517 of them are illegal.
“None of the towers in the city are illegal. We have built all the towers in accordance to a 2003 MCD policy. In 2008, the MCD made new regulations which stated that the resident welfare associations (RWAs) have to give permission for such towers,” said Khanna. “We were told to deposit the papers of such towers to the MCD who would sanction them. They have been pending for the last two years. As per rules, no reply in 60 days means the sanction is deemed okay,” he added.
Both MCD and Noida authorities want all cellphone towers to have structural stability certificates, a no-objection certificate (NoC) from the RWAs, design approval from experts, clearance from the pollution board, fire department and a security fee of one lakh per tower. Above all, they want the towers to be moved out of residential areas to commercial areas due to reported health risks.
According to Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and AUSPI officials, some of the guidelines which the MCD wants them to implement are highly impractical.
“According to one of the MCD guidelines, towers can only be set up on houses that have their completion certificates. This is a very impractical guideline as this formality has not been completed in many cases,” said TR Dua, officiating director general, COAI.
The MCD has already set up a sub-committee, headed by councillor Meera Agarwal, which is holding talks
with the RWAs. It has also written to the World Health Organisation (WHO) to ascertain the health risk posed by the towers. WHO has said that it still has no data to reach any conclusion on health risks.
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