The Hindu 07.03.2013
Special regulation for installation of telecom towers to be finalised soon
Fee structure for permission to be decided by local bodies.
The State may soon finalise special regulation for installation of telecom towers in the urban areas.
According
to a recently-held high-level meeting chaired by Housing and Urban
Development secretary I. Srinivas, fee structure for granting permission
or renewing the installation towers will be decided by respective urban
local bodies.
Union Ministry of Communication and
Information Technology recently circulated guidelines regarding
obtaining necessary clearance from the local authorities concerned such
as urban local bodies and development authorities.
Feasibility
of telecom infrastructure towers already installed would be looked into
on the basis of directions of the High Court by development authorities
and ULBs for its continuance or shifting, the meeting resolved, adding
that the special regulation for installation of telecom towers could be
finalised by the month end.
The draft special
regulation rules for installation of telecom towers in the urban areas
prepared by the State government identified locations within 100-metre
distance from educational, religious, and health institutions as
prohibited zones for telecom towers.
Health hazard
The
draft rule says the first preference should be given to the location of
towers in the forest areas and non-residential buildings away from
educational institutions and hospitals.
Treating
radiations from telecom towers as a major health hazard, the State
government proposed that design of the telecom towers should contain
installation of minimum six radiation observation points.
Such observation point should be located approximately at the locations where the nearest fauna or habitation area exists.
Such
observation points should have instruments to measure the radiation
level continuously for every five minutes and should continue its
operations 24×7 hours throughout the year, according to the draft rule.
