The Times of India 13.08.2012
Cell towers to need corporations green signal
CHENNAI: Cellphone service providers will no longer be able to work out
rental agreements with the owners of private buildings and set up
transmission towers wherever they please. City corporations
and other local bodies will have to grant permission for new cellular
towers and audit towers in their limits on a regular basis.
The Centre has also directed that no new tower will be permitted within a 1km radius of an existing tower. This will be a double whammy to cellular operators, which have been given a month to reduce radiation from mobile towers by 90%.
From now on, a town or city corporation will have to study the ecological impact of an installation on birds and animals in the vicinity before giving a cellular tower the go-ahead, said an advisory issued by the ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) on Thursday.
Local bodies are also expected to "regularly audit and monitor electro-magnetic radiation around recreational, residential, educational and healthcare premises". They have also been instructed to erect "large signboards with messages about dangers of cellphone towers and radiation".
Cellphone service providers have so far not required any permission from corporations, the pollution control board or Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority. The corporation enumerated the towers in its jurisdiction in 2010, but that was only to levy a tax on them.
The corporation is already studying different models to regulate mobile towers. Corporation commissioner D Karthikeyan said they would replicate the Delhi municipal corporation's model. "We will levy a tax and also study the structural stability of the towers," he said.
A senior corporation official said they had not yet received any notification on the advisory. "When we do, we will coordinate with other agencies to do what is required," he said.
Two weeks ago, the Centre ordered all operators to reduce the radiation emissions from 9.2 w/m2 to 0.92 w/m2, starting from September. This means that they will have to reduce their frequencies by a large extent.
The Centre has also directed that no new tower will be permitted within a 1km radius of an existing tower. This will be a double whammy to cellular operators, which have been given a month to reduce radiation from mobile towers by 90%.
From now on, a town or city corporation will have to study the ecological impact of an installation on birds and animals in the vicinity before giving a cellular tower the go-ahead, said an advisory issued by the ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) on Thursday.
Local bodies are also expected to "regularly audit and monitor electro-magnetic radiation around recreational, residential, educational and healthcare premises". They have also been instructed to erect "large signboards with messages about dangers of cellphone towers and radiation".
Cellphone service providers have so far not required any permission from corporations, the pollution control board or Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority. The corporation enumerated the towers in its jurisdiction in 2010, but that was only to levy a tax on them.
The corporation is already studying different models to regulate mobile towers. Corporation commissioner D Karthikeyan said they would replicate the Delhi municipal corporation's model. "We will levy a tax and also study the structural stability of the towers," he said.
A senior corporation official said they had not yet received any notification on the advisory. "When we do, we will coordinate with other agencies to do what is required," he said.
Two weeks ago, the Centre ordered all operators to reduce the radiation emissions from 9.2 w/m2 to 0.92 w/m2, starting from September. This means that they will have to reduce their frequencies by a large extent.
