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Mumbai Takes A Positive Step Towards Becoming Digitally Advanced

BMC under directions as per Administrator (Standing Committee) Resolution has reduced the Access Charges for laying of telecom optical fibre cable to INR 1000 per Km from INR 1 Lakh per Km.

Mumbai Takes A Positive Step Towards Becoming Digitally Advanced
(Representational Image)
SHARES

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) under directions as per Administrator (Standing Committee) Resolution has reduced the Access Charges for laying of telecom optical fibre cable to INR 1000 per Km from INR 1 Lakh per Km. This is a substantial reduction and will benefit the industry.

With this, COAI looks forward to working with the DoT, Secretary, the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra, officials of BMC, officials of the IT Department of Mumbai, LSA officials of the Department of Telecommunications, and industry representatives for this initiative. This will help in the quick rollout of broadband across Mumbai and achieving the goal of “Broadband for All”. Also, this directive is a positive move to achieve India’s digital revolution, meet the National Broadband Mission (NBM) targets and achieve the ambition of smart cities.

The BMC, Mumbai was levying INR 1 Lakh per Km as access charges for laying of Optical Fibre Cables (OFCs) as per old Guidelines for Trenching Activity – 2015. After due deliberations by COAI and its members with the Maharashtra Government, the Telecom infrastructure policy was issued by the state government on 17 February 2018 via Government Resolution No. DIT065/CR1/2018 that superseded the erstwhile policies/Government orders, in line with RoW Rules issued by Department of Telecommunication vide gazette notification dated 16th November 2016.

As per clause (B) (12) of the said Policy, the amount of administrative charges for laying of optical fibre is INR 1000 per km of fibre. As per clause (B) (16) of the said Policy, no other tax, fee, cess, or surcharge shall be levied by local authorities. All other charges are to be subsumed in the administrative charges to be paid to the Department of Information Technology.

In various meetings and submissions, COAI raised concerns that the proposal to recover access charges for the Right of Way for the laying of optic fibre cable is contradictory to RoW Rules, 2016 and Telecom Infrastructure Policy of Maharashtra, 17 February 2018. This had become a big roadblock coming as a threat to the existence and upcoming telecom infrastructure rollouts in the state of Maharashtra.

Appreciating the directions issued by the BMC, Lt. Gen. Dr SP Kochhar, Director General said “COAI has been taking up this issue directly with Maharashtra State Government & Municipal Corporation and through DoT HQ and LSA. Though we had requested the zero Access Charge in line with the RoW 2016 Rules, however, this is a substantial reduction and will benefit the members. COAI will continue to push for zero access Charges in line with RoW rules in BMC and other Municipalities wherein it is being levied. This is a positive step toward making Mumbai digitally advanced and achieving the goal of ‘Broadband for All’.”

In the State Broadband Committee Meeting of Mumbai held on 12 Nov 2021, the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra has given a directive to form an inter-department committee to solve various issues across Mumbai that are hindering the roll-out of Telecom Infrastructure across the State like the levying of exorbitant restoration Charges, access Charges, etc.

Also Read: Here's Why Mumbai Was Chosen To Built World's Largest Elevator

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