The Deccan Chronicle 04.10.2010
Unsafe cell towers not demolishedHyderabad, Oct. 3: Cellphone companies have by and large ignored the GHMC’s one-time settlement scheme to regularise communication towers. They have not even demolished about 290 towers identified as unsafe.
Under the scheme, cellular companies would have to submit data on the number of towers they had installed until 2008 to the GHMC, and pay `1 lakh as a one-time fee to regularise them. Cellphone firms have regularised only 300 of the 2,000 unregistered towers.
The glitch is that before 2008, cellular companies were not required to get the GHMC’s permission to set up towers atop buildings. Then, aggrieved citizens approached the High Court stating that structurally unfit towers posed a danger to their lives. The state issued orders asking cellular firms to seek the civic body’s permission before installing any tower.
The HC directed the GHMC to check the towers for structural fitness. The civic body duly appointed a committee comprising experts from the JNTU, Hyderabad, and other institutions which identified 290 towers as structurally unstable. These towers have not been demolished yet.
A GHMC official said the cellular companies wanted to know on what basis the GHMC had fixed the `1 lakh fee.
The cellphone firms say that prior to 2008, the state had issued orders stating that companies only need to intimate the corporation. There was no need for get GHMC permission, they contend. The firms have approached the HC to block the fee. The chief city planner of the GHMC, Mr G.V. Raghu, said the corporation was “relentlessly pursuing” the cases in the court.
