Mobile towers on top of buildings in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 10: The state government has formulated a policy to check mushrooming mobile phone towers in the city that has more than 1,000 of these structures, but only 400 have been registered with the authorities.

The policy will also be applicable to other urban areas of the state.

The new policy says that mobile phone towers cannot be erected within 100 metre radius of educational or health institutions and 300 metres radius of Archeological Survey of India (ASI) monuments.

Besides, the service providers have to procure no-objection certificates from concerned authorities and permission from the local urban body for a period of three years by paying a prescribed fee.

Earlier, the mobile service providers were not following any norms and had been raising the towers by paying an annual fee to the local urban body.

This regulation will be applicable to all the mobile towers installed on ground or rooftops or in any premises.

The officials said that this regulations would be applicable to both existing and proposed towers.

“The telecom towers should be located on vacant spaces. If locating the base station and antenna in residential area is unavoidable, the mobile service provider should identify a building, which is in the design stage, and they must plan the erection of towers accordingly,” say the new regulations.

Besides, the rules say that the possibility of multiple users of single towers should be explored to reduce the number towers.

Officials in the housing and urban development department said that mobile service providers would have to seek permission from the owners of buildings in case of rooftop towers, no-objection certificates from the ASI where applicable, the local urban body or the development authority, whichever has right over the building and from the fire safety department in case of high-rise buildings.

Permission of the telecommunication department, state pollution control board, airport authority and the forest department is required to get clearance.

The fee for granting permission to install mobile towers depends on the civic body. In Bhubaneswar, the municipal corporation charges Rs 12,500 as fee. It collects Rs 3,400 as an annual renewal licence fee for each tower registered with it.

For getting permission of the local body, the telecom service provider must have service licence issued by telecom department, a copy of structural stability certificate and such other documents.

The authorities would inform the service provider within two months and the telecom operators have to rectify their deficiencies within a month.

The permission issued will be valid for three years after which the service provider must renew it.

“If the service provider does not comply with the safety norms according to the regulation, the authorities will issue notice to them and then withdraw the permission and they will be told to remove the structures with immediate effect,” said Injeti Shrinivas, additional chief secretary to the state government.

The officials said that the policy has been finalised after studying regulations of installation of mobile towers in other states, including Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra and West Bengal.

Sources in corporation said it often happened that mobile companies in connivance with employees of the civic body erected towers wherever they wanted to but now disorderly growth could be curtailed.

City-based environment expert Bijay Mishra said that radiation from mobile phone towers had been causing several diseases among residents and led to the extinction of species such as small birds and bees in several areas.

Some corporation officials said on condition of anonymity that there should be a clause for the applicants that if they fail to submit documents within a stipulated time their applications will be rejected.

Besides, the decision to give permission for three years would deprive the corporation of renewal licence fee for two years on each tower.