The Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) has approached the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to incorporate its tower rules and make them mandatory through suitable legislation/direction for the state governments. According to TAIPA, various state governments? regulations are not aligned with the mobile tower installation rules of DoT.
Earlier in 2013, DoT had framed the rules after consulting with state governments like Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Andhra, Odisha and even some local municipal bodies in Pune, Mumbai and Nagpur. However the Association is of the view that a uniform practice is not in place, which is adversely impacting telecom networks. Further, multiple documentations add additional administrative works and cause huge delay in processing of applications.
TAIPA has also stated that the states of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar, Haryana, Puducherry and Chandigarh have been imposing artificial restrictions for tower installation in and around water bodies, airports, hospitals and sensitive buildings in the range of 50-1,500 metres. Meanwhile, differential fees are being charged from mobile tower firms in Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Haryana and Chandigarh instead of a nominal one-time administrative fee as stipulated in the DoT guidelines.
