KMC plans to dismantle defunct mobile towers posing safety risks

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is mulling a policy so that it can take measures for dismantling the defunct, abandoned mobile towers on rooftops of buildings that are posing a risk to the neighbouring residents. A resident from the Ranikuthi area in south Kolkata on Saturday called city Mayor Firhad Hakim at the ‘Talk to Mayor’ programme and complained that chunks were falling from an abandoned mobile tower situated on the roof of a highrise which is compromising the safety of the people of the neighbourhood. Taking serious note of the problem, the Mayor said: “I will soon hold a meeting with the telecom service providers and will seek a ward-wise list of the mobile towers on rooftops. Following this, our Building department will verify the list and earmark the abandoned towers in the city. Once, the exercise is complete, we will ask the concerned building owner to take the necessary measures for dismantling such towers. If they refuse, we will take the assistance from the Information Technology (IT) department of KMC and pull down such towers,” the Mayor said.

He added that if KMC dismantles such towers it will be treated as a scrap and will be auctioned through proper procedure. According to Hakim, there were a good number of telecom service providers that had set up such towers but had later shelved their business operations in the city leaving such towers crying for maintenance. More than two decades back during the time of the then Mayor, the Corporation would charge a processing fee from such telecom companies for granting permission to set up such mobile towers. The service providers had to give an assurance of maintenance of such towers. However, some of them have wound up their business operations in the city and their towers have been lying abandoned for years.