The Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA) as well as the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) are very happy with the Tamil Nadu government’s recent decision for adopting the central government’s Right of Way (RoW) Rules 2016. With this, Tamil Nadu has become the 32nd state amongst the 36 states and union territories (UTs) in India to issue RoW rules for easing telecom infrastructure rollout. According to the notification released by the Tamil Nadu government, the state government has fixed Rs 10,000 as a one-time fee for the cost of meeting administrative expenses for the installation of the telecom tower. Further, for rolling out optical fibre cable (OFC), be it overhead or underground, the telecom operators will be charged Rs 1,000 per kilometre.
Tamil Nadu Government Encouraging Faster Digitisation of the State
With this policy, the government is encouraging a faster and easier deployment of new mobile towers, cell on wheel, OFC, small cell, microsites, in-building solutions etc., which are vital for improving the digital connectivity across urban municipal corporations as well as other areas of Tamil Nadu. More importantly, the new policy will play a major role when it comes to the rollout of 5G networks and services in the state. According to the rules, neither District Nodal Officer nor any appropriate authority can’t charge track rent from the companies for the grant of any permission. Lt. General Dr S P Kochhar, DG, COAI, thanked the Tamil Nadu government for updating the state’s telecom RoW policy which will ease the deployment of new mobile towers and ease the rollout of OFC. Kochhar said this would facilitate the speedy roll-out of telecom infrastructure. Mr T R Dua, DG, DIPA, also expressed gratefulness towards the Tamil Nadu government for releasing the long-awaited Tamil Nadu telecom RoW policy. With these new rules, digitisation in Tamil Nadu will be able to fast-track and will contribute to the efficient rollout of 5G in the near future.
