The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) under directions as per Administrator (Standing Committee) Resolution has reduced the access charges for laying of telecom optical fibre cable (OFC) to Rs 1,000 per kilometre from Rs 100,000 per kilometre. This is a substantial reduction and will benefit the industry. The move will ensure quick rollout of broadband across Mumbai and achieving the goal of “Broadband for All”. Also, this directive is a positive move to achieve India’s digital revolution, to meet the National Broadband Mission (NBM) targets and achieve the ambition of smart cities.
The BMC was levying Rs 100,000 per kilometre as access charges for laying of OFCs as per old ‘Guidelines for Trenching Activity – 2015’. After due deliberations by Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and its members with the state government of Mumbai, the telecom infrastructure policy was issued by the government of Maharashtra on February 17, 2018 via government resolution no. DIT065/CR1/2018 that superseded the erstwhile policies/government orders, in line with RoW rules issued by Department of Telecommunication (DoT) vide gazette notification dated November 16, 2016. As per clause (B) (12) of the said policy, the amount of administrative charges for laying of optical fibre is Rs 1,000 per kilometre of fibre. As per clause (B) (16) of the said policy, no other tax, fee, cess, or surcharge shall be levied by local authorities. All other charges are to be subsumed in the administrative charges to be paid to the Department of Information Technology.
Commenting on the initiative, Lt. Gen. Dr. SP Kochhar, director general, said, “COAI has been taking up this issue directly with Maharashtra state government and Municipal Corporation and through DoT HQ and LSA. COAI and its members were continually following up on this issue with the state government requesting for withdrawal of access charges. Though we had requested the zero access charge in line with the right-of-way (RoW) 2016 Rules, however, this is a substantial reduction and will benefit the members. COAI will continue to push for zero access charges in line with RoW rules in BMC and other municipalities/districts wherein it is being levied. We encourage other local municipalities to withdraw the additional access charges being levied in line with RoW Rules, 2016 to make Mumbai/ Maharashtra digitally advanced. This is a positive step toward making Mumbai digitally advanced and achieving the goal of ‘Broadband for All’. We are grateful to DoT, secretary for his continuous support and guidance on various RoW related and industry issues.”
In the state broadband committee meeting of Mumbai held on November 12, 2021, the chief secretary of Maharashtra have given directive to form an inter-department committee to solve various issues across Mumbai that are hindering the roll-out of telecom infrastructure across the state like levying of exorbitant restoration charges, access charges, etc..
