Paranoid that the mobile phone tower on top of your building will come crashing down? The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will lay to rest all your doubts. It has finally decided to draft a policy for erecting such towers on rooftops, with a single rider: the structural stability of the building will have to pass muster.
According to the new policy, the BMC's building proposal department will have to clear any request for setting up such towers. It will give the nod only after a no-objection certificate is acquired from the owner of the building or the society. If the building stands on a corporation land, the BMC will have to grant permission as well.
Shiv Sena corporator Kamalakar Naik had asked the civic body in March last year to take action against illegal mobile phone towers. “They affect people's health. Besides, many towers don't have the requisite BMC permission and the civic body loses its revenue in the process,” clarified Naik.
The BMC will also take up a demolishing drive against illegal towers. It had earlier taken action against 145 such towers, and had collected Rs24,708 as penalty, before the government threw in a spanner. A senior civic administration official said the state issued a stay order (dated January 27, 2007) to the BMC on any action against illegal mobile phone towers. So now, the BMC has to make do with only slapping a penalty of Rs5,000 on illegal mobile phone tower operators and cut them loose. “The order will be reviewed by the government and then, we will take a call on demolishing illegal towers,” assured the official. “To erect a mobile phone tower on any building, the BMC collects Rs5,000 as deposit and Rs5,000 as penalty to regularise it, and charges a premium depending on the area of operation and the ready reckoner rate. These will also be increased.”
According to the BMC, there are 1,628 mobile phone towers that are not regularised by it. The most number of such towers are in Andheri (East) (261), followed closely by Bandra (West) (211), Dadar (210) and in Girgaon (138).
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