The Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA) on Monday said the telecom connectivity may suffer in Uttar Pradesh due to tower sealing and permission delays. As of date, more than 480 tower applications have been rejected by NOIDA and Ghaziabad Development Authority, DIPA said.
The association counts members such as Indus Towers, Summit Digitel, ATC, Ascend Telecom, Sterlite Technologies, among others.
DIPA’s members have received lot of rejection orders from NOIDA and Ghaziabad Development Authority stating that towers are not permitted to be installed in residential areas, location-based restrictions, and license fees. However, these rejections are not in line with Indian Telegraph Right of Way (RoW) Rules, 2016, which were amended in 2017, 2021 and 2022.
“We request support in convincing the NOIDA authority about the importance of communication infrastructure and the need to allow its operations without any coercive action,” said TR Dua, director general of DIPA in a letter to Durga Shanker Mishra, chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh government and NOIDA authority chairman Manoj Kumar Singh.
According to Dua, landlords are being threatened with the sealing of their properties if they continue to allow communication sites operations. These issues need urgent intervention and support, further delay will have severe implications on the telecom connectivity and impact the essential services if not implemented immediately, DIPA said.
Last month also, DIPA had expressed concern over coercive actions on its member companies and had written to the Uttar Pradesh government.
Such delay in permissions for setting up telecom infrastructure, could potentially affect the pace of 5G deployment, DIPA said.