Mobile Towers: As Karnataka Tries To Form Policy, Officials, Politicians Clash Over Plan To Regularise Illegal Edifices

In Karnataka, a new set of regulations being introduced will put telecom tower operators in a fix as a notification will be sent within two weeks about new infrastructure regulations. Most towers in the city are on top of buildings constructed illegally without obtaining the Occupancy Certificates (OC) or having a sanctioned plan with them.

The minute the Karnataka Installation of New Telecommunication Infrastructure Regulations (2015) are notified, the towers will lose their authorisation. Once enforced, the new regulations mandate that the operators submit documents containing the details of location plan, site plan, sanction plan, structural stability certificate, occupancy certificate, ownership document, lease deed, no-objection certificate from the fire department. About 6,700 self-declared towers exist in the city out of which 5,500 are said to be on illegal buildings.

Since regularising towers on illegal buildings might fetch BBMP about Rs 67 crore in taxes, corporators are pitching that the policy be introduced. But officials argue that this will lead to litigations since the Akrama-Sakrama case is pending in the apex court.

Economic Times quoted an officer of the BBMP as saying, “A majority of these towers are built on buildings built in violation of bye-laws. If the BBMP decides to regularise towers and give them sanction plan and OC, naturally, it will also regularise the entire building. This is dangerous because a tower built on a building without OC and structural stability certificate is unsafe and hazardous.”