BHUBANESWAR: The mindless installation of telecom towers across the State is all set to come to a grinding halt. The State Government is ready with a special regulation which will check mushrooming of cellphone towers across urban areas.As per the proposed regulation, installation of telecom towers will not be allowed on and around 100 metre of buildings where educational, religious and health institutions are operating. Keeping in mind the radiation, the draft document stipulates that instruments radiating the emission will not be installed within 36 metre from the area where people inhabit for at least eight hours for over 100 days a year.Similarly, within 300-metre radius of a monument, under protection of Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology, permission for construction of towers will not be sanctioned anymore. In 100 metre of high security zones and buildings, no permission will be accorded. Zones, where natural drainage is located and local administration has imposed restriction, no permission will be given for installation of towers.Prepared by the Urban Development Department, the draft regulation says first preference will be given to locate towers in forest areas and vacant places, non-residential buildings, municipal buildings and select Government buildings. An area of three-metre radius around the tower should be declared as ‘setback’.More importantly, the special regulation, which has been circulated among the major administrative departments, lays down that the existing telecom towers, located especially in residential areas and close to educational, religious and health institutions, will have to go. All those towers and base stations, which do not conform to the norms, will have to be shifted in six months of issue of the regulation but operation of the towers must be stopped within 24 hours.“We have incorporated an interesting clause which stipulates that radiation must be observed by the telecom service providers on a regular basis,” said a senior official of the Urban Development Department. As per the clause, it will be the responsibility of the service provider to design the tower in such a manner that it has, at least, six radiation observation points.The observation points will have to be close to habitation. The readings must be taken for five continuous minutes every day and all through the year. The observations will have to be hosted on the website of the service providers.The proposed regulation also denies permission for installation of towers on unsafe buildings. It adds that if permission is granted to towers on buildings, which are declared unsafe at a later date, it will have to be withdrawn by the local authorities.
Comments
0 comment