‘Mumbai is losing Rs1,000 crore due to fraud by telecom firms’

The city is losing about Rs1,000 crore in revenue due to the telecom companies, which lay their cables underground, misusing the permissions given by the civic body.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) allows the companies to lay their wires underground for wireless connectivity. The companies have been taking permission for one line and laying four to five. The BMC charges them Rs22 per metre.

Dnyanmurti Sharma, chairman of law committee of the BMC, noticing the fraud, asked the civic administration to collect data and prepare details of the permissions and revenue received from it. But the administration has not been able to provide the details.
BMC’s records show that Idea has dug up about 4,443km in this year and Bharti Airtel has dug up 61km but BMC has received only Rs250 crore in lieu of these permissions.

“The companies take permission for one line and lay at least four in the same duct. They pay for only one line. There is no supervision from BMC, so the companies are taking advantage of it,” he alleged.

“We check records of the ward offices to see how much permission has been granted from the ward and how much revenue are they getting. The officers, who issue the permissions, have to monitor the work,” said a senior official from BMC’s account department.