Telecom Equipment Manufacturers? Association of India (TEMA) has written to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh highlighting huge consumption of diesel by telecom tower sites resulting in huge subsidy burden.
TEMA has said that the telecom towers in the country are costing exchequer a loss of Rs 43 billion per year through subsidy on diesel. In its letter TEMA says that that almost 60 per cent of the power requirement of telecom towers is met through use of diesel generator sets (DG Sets).
The electricity available at the sites across major circles varies from 7-21 hours per day and according to TEMA there are hundreds of sites whose dependence on DG sets is almost 100 per cent. TEMA points out that over the years the number of telecom towers essential for providing connectivity to all areas has also gone up exponentially, thereby increasing the subsidy burden.
In April 2011, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India also highlighted the increasing volumes of diesel being consumed by the tower industry and the need to move to cleaner sources of energy such as renewable. TRAI had observed that approximately 8760 litres of diesel was being consumed per year per site.
