The Department of Information Technology, Electronics and Communications has been appointed as the nodal agency for collecting land usage charges and application fees from telecom operators for the use of government and municipal land in Goa, including street furniture.
In addition, the department will manage all right of way (RoW) permissions, and no objection certificates (NOCs) related to government-owned land through a centralised e-services portal. A meeting regarding this development was recently held at the department’s office in Altinho, Panaji.
The initiative aims to streamline and expedite the approval process for setting up telecom infrastructure such as mobile towers, underground cables, and digital connectivity systems. This is expected to significantly boost the expansion of digital infrastructure in rural areas of the state.
Serving as the designated state department for implementing the Telecommunications (Right of Way) Rules, 2024, the IT department’s role aligns with the government’s objective to improve ease of doing business through faster, single-window clearances in the telecom sector.
Further, the state departments have been instructed to appoint nodal officers to coordinate approvals. While fees collected by the IT department will be routed to the state treasury, land use charges collected within villages and towns will be passed on to the respective land-owning local bodies.
