The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is examining the possibility of approaching the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to extend long-term soft loans to Indian operators, to help them implement capital-intensive green technologies.
The move is aimed to provide viability gap funding (VGF) to service providers for adhering to the guidelines pertaining to green technology issued by the DoT. According to operators, the implementation of green energy solution at tower sites will lead to an additional burden of Rs 660 billion on the industry which faces a debt burden of Rs 2,500 billion.
DoT is likely to approach ADB once consultancy firm, PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC), provides it with an estimate of the VGF required by the telecom sector for meeting the green energy targets. In consultation with DoT, GSM and CDMA service providers have jointly engaged PwC to examine the techno-commercial feasibility of powering about 3,50,000 mobile towers with alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, biomass or fuel cells over the next seven years. PwC is likely to submit a detailed project report in 12 weeks.
