DoT seeks to expedite mobile tower installations at airports

The government has issued guidelines to expeditiously resolve issues related to the installation of mobile phone towers.

“The cases already pending with AAI/JCES beyond 30 days’ time as well as the future cases, not meeting auto-settle criteria, if not dealt by AAI/JCES within 30 days time, shall be deemed cleared after lapse of 30 days’ time from the date of application,” said LD Meghwal, Sr. Deputy Wireless Advisor, in a letter dated January 12, 2022, to Member (ANS) & GM, Airports Authority of India (AAI), and Director, Joint Communications & Electronic Staff (JCES).

The letter added, “the clearance shall have the following condition: “The physical construction of the tower shall not be commenced before the 16th day of the issuance of clearance.”.

The telecom reforms package that was rolled out on September 15 seeks to simplify the Standing Advisory Committee on Radio Frequency Allocations (SACFA) clearance process for installing towers through measures such as self-declaration-based, automated time bound approvals of SACFA cases, including integration of AAI and JCES systems with SaralSanchar Portal of Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

Every telecom operator requires approval from the SACFA on the height and location of any tower it plans to install anywhere. AAI approves a sizable number of applications for tower installations.

“In the year 2015, AAI, being Member of SACFA Committee, added 121 (now 97 only) un-licensed state government controlled airports in the protection list; however, they are showing their inability to process the siting cases with reference to these airports. 97 such airports are spread over 23 States/UTs,” Meghwal said, adding that delay on this account is severely affecting the rollout and expansion of telecom networks, and it is affecting the proliferation of broadband, especially in rural and underserved areas.

As per the letter, no airstrip/airport will be recognized by SACFA siting clearance system if it has not taken necessary licenses/clearances from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)/AAI.

“Therefore, the SACFA system will not recognise these so-called airports unless they are licensed/authorized by DGCA/AAI incorporated into NOCAS (No Objection Certificate Application System) of AAI,” it said. Mac Pro Tricks