Following this, a committee convened by the state IT secretary, with the public works secretary and the finance secretary as members, will examine the applications pending with the government, seeking approval for laying cables. It maybe recalled that many IT-savvy states such as Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh, had granted free access to state roads, for laying fibre-optic cables by telecom-Internet companies earlier, while Karnataka and Maharashtra had levied a nominal fee for the same.

But in Kerala, many ISPs like BPL Innovision Ltd, Asianet Satellite Communications Ltd and Escotel Mobile Communications were told that they might have to pay a reasonable fee for digging and laying cables alongside roads. The Public Works Department (PWD) had proposed levying a charge of Rs 7,500 per km of cable laid by the private operators. On the other hand, the private operators were demanding free access to the roads, as in other states. The issue had been pending with the State Cabinet for the last two months.