Business Line 02.04.2013
50% mobile towers in Mumbai unauthorised
Blaming the BMC officers of turning a blind eye towards mushrooming
mobile towers in the metropolis, Maharashtra Urban Development Minister
Bhaskar Jadhav told the Legislative Council here that over 50 per cent
of them were unauthorised.
Assuring the legislators in the Upper House that action will be taken
against errant Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officers, he
said the State Government will consider discontinuing power supply to
these unauthorised towers.
Jadhav was responding to a calling attention motion moved by NCP legislator Prakash Binsale on the matter.
“As per the survey done by BMC in 2011, there are 3,705 mobile towers in
the jurisdiction of the municipal corporation out of which 1,830 are
unauthorised. However, after BMC started taking action in 2010 against
these towers, mobile companies moved the Bombay High Court and got a
stay over their eviction in October 2011,” Jadhav said.
“We cannot deny that BMC officers were responsible for this. These 1,830
towers did not come up overnight. The civic officers failed to stop
them and electricity supply is being provided to these towers,” he said.
The minister said that while the Union Government has a policy regarding
mobile towers, the State Government or municipal bodies did not have
any.