50% Mobile tower in Bhopal are illegal

Around 50 percent of the mobile towers in the State capital are illegal, concluded a  report of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation {BMC}. The civic body is responsible for issuing requisite permissions to these towers. In a list recently compiled by the civic body, it was discovered that as many as 160 of the total 318 mobile towers in the city were installed illegally, while only 160 were found to be complying with the norms.

    Interestingly, those termed illegal were found to be flouting municipal guidelines as the list does not take into account any health risks posed by these towers.

Ironically, of these 158 mobile towers of different companies, including Airtel, and Reliance, around 50 have been granted a stay order by the court, restraining the corporation from initiating action against them.

                                                                              While Airtel tops the list of illegally erected towers with as many as 50 such towers spread across various localities of the city, Reliance was found to own 21 illegal mobile towers. The remaining are owned by other private players in the telecom sectors. Most of these towers were termed as illegal, due to their failure to get the building strength certified of MANIT as required by municipal norms, said officials.

                                      The other pre-requisites for installing mobile towers including a no objection certificate {NOC} from the local ward office, depositing the requisite fee and completing relevant paperwork, which could only complete only commence after completion of the initial two steps.