Illegal mobile towers in SDMC areas to be sealed

Struggling to check the mushrooming of illegal mobile phone towers in areas under its jurisdiction, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) is mulling to form a special task force (STF) to effectively seal such towers, whose number is believed to have shot up to around 3,000.

“We have been considering forming a special task force to check the menace of illegal mobile phone towers in various parts of South Delhi and it will come up after a meeting with the officials concerned on Monday,” said Shailendra Singh, chairman of the SDMC’s standing committee.

The civic body will focus on sealing the towers, especially those in densely-populated residential areas and villages, where they are installed flouting the norms and where local resistance against them is high, he said.

The current sealing process is not very effective as only one or two wires are cut and the towers continue to function uninterrupted. The proposed task force would ensure that the mobile towers were sealed in such a manner that they stop working completely, he said.

As per the SDMC figures, the total number of towers in areas under its jurisdiction is around 3,200, of which around 1,600 have been installed illegally, said a senior municipal corporation official. Singh added that the details have been sought from the officials concerned as it was pointed out during a recent meeting of the standing committee that the number of towers had gone up to around 6,000, with illegally erected structures comprising half of them.