Civic body seals 16 mobile towers, cuts power supply

editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, March 15

The Municipal Corporation sealed and cut the power connection of 16 mobile towers belonging to two companies for not responding to civic body notices. Mobile connectivity will be disrupted after 24 or 48 hours in cretin areas of the city when the towers will stop working after battery backup finishes.

Ghanshyam Thori, Additional Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, said: “We have no other option as the two companies, VIOM and Indus Towers, have failed to provide the basic information about their towers. So, we cut the power connections and sealed eight towers of VIOM and as many of Indus Towers. We don’t want to disrupt the telecommunication services but the company officials are not paying heed to our repeated notices. We got feedback from Airtel and Aster Infrastructures and they are ready to pay the dues”.

Earlier, the MC sealed 32 towers on March 6 to press the companies to pay their dues. The MC had claimed that they have Rs 5 crore dues toward the mobile tower companies.

The MC officials are not aware of the total number of towers installed in the city. They have a record of only 300 towers while there are more than 700 towers installed within the MC limits. The MC is trying to develop a data base to regularise the tower system.

“We are developing a tower management system software, which will have a complete database of towers. We will update all details about the towers and it will become easy to collect the annual fee from the tower companies,” said Thori.

The Municipal Corporation charges Rs 50,000 for granting permission for installing a tower in the city. After installation, the company has to pay Rs 10,000 every year as annual renewal fee. Most mobile service providers further hire sub-companies for providing them tower service. A majority of towers in the city have been installed by VIOM and Indus Towers.