BMC To Enforce 1 Building, 1 Cell Tower Rule Soon

Owing to strong demands of an-radiation campaigners, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation ( BMC) is now considering the proposal to allow only one mobile tower atop each building. This new policy comes following a meeting with citizen's groups on Wednesday.

"We are considering the demand to put a cap of one tower per building, but are yet to take a call on it," said Rajeev Kuknur, chief engineer of the development plan department.

Apart from this, the BMC has also agreed to the suggestion that permission from the owner of the topmost flat of a building will be required for the installation of a roof top cell tower. Another important development in the new policy is that the consent of 70% of residents of a structure will be required. Also, no towers will be permitted on school, hospital and other such buildings at any cost.

"We are only concerned about reducing the radiation levels in the city. For this, we either have to increase the distance between two towers or reduce the power of one tower. Since the guidelines of the state and central governments do not help us much in this aspect, we feel that putting a cap on the number of towers allowed per building will also limit the amount of radiation. This will be allowed only with the consent of the residents of the buildings concerned," said activist Prakash Munshi, according to IE.

Citizens have also put in requests for more clarity on legal and illegal towers in the city.