The Indian Express            12.09.2013

BMC likely to put cap on number of cellphone towers per building

At a meeting with BJP corporator Vinod Shelar and citizens' activist Prakash Munshi on Wednesday, the corporation gave its in-principle agreement to permit only one cellphone tower per building in the city.

If the rule comes into effect, telecom-service providers will have to adhere to the guidelines of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) included in the BMC's cellphone tower policy that is at present being prepared.

"We are considering the demand to put a cap of one tower per building, but are yet to take a call on it," said Rajeev Kuknur, chief engineer of the development plan department.

"At our meetings with the corporation, there have been a few issues on which we have had no consensus. While the DoT guidelines have defined the distance between antennae, there is no clarity on how many towers are allowed per building. Now, the BMC has in-principle agreed to our demand of one tower per building," Shelar said

"We are only concerned about reducing the radiation levels in the city. For this, we either have to increase the distance between two towers or reduce the power of one tower. Since the guidelines of the state and central governments do not help us much in this aspect, we feel that putting a cap on the number of towers allowed per building will also limit the amount of radiation. This will be allowed only with the consent of the residents of the buildings concerned," said activist Prakash Munshi, who attended the meeting.

The DoT advisory specifies that in case of both, ground-level and roof-top towers, there should be no building of equivalent height in front of the antennae. The tilt of the lowest antenna on the tower as per distances specified should be taken into account.

The directives also state that there shouldn't be a building in front of an antenna till a distance of 20 m. Similarly, if there are six antennae in the same direction, there should be no building or structure in front, up to 55m. For four antennae, the safe distance specified is 45 m, and for two antennae, it is 35m. The BMC has also adopted the guideline that specifies that towers must be installed at least 5m above road level.

"Most city flyovers and road-over-bridges are at a height of 3m from the ground, yet so many cellphone towers are located on these without proper permission," Shelar said.

The BMC will soon publish an official list of the number of legal cellphone towers in the city. "This will help citizens identify which towers in their neighbourhood are illegal. Illegal towers can be brought to the notice of the grievance committee for redressal," Shelar added.

Last week, based on DOT's guidelines, the civic body agreed to set up a district-level telecom committee to address public grievances. The panel will be chaired by an additional municipal commissioner and will include the dean of KEM hospital, DOT officials, civic officers, and representatives from citizens groups and NGOs.