Government cracks the whip on seven telcos for violating radiation norms

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) today said it has asked seven telecom operators including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone to stop using 11 tower sites in Mumbai after they were found to be emitting radiation beyond permissible levels. 

Besides, DoT has also directed all the operators to carry out a comprehensive exercise to identify all tower sites which are non-compliant as per latest radiation norms and ensure that they are either shut down or made compliant with the new radiation norms failing which penal action would be taken against them.

The new radiation norms, which came into effect from September 1, 2012, require operators to reduce emission levels by one-tenth from earlier levels of 9.2 watt per square meter to 0.92 watt per square metre. The guidelines had said that non-compliance will result in a penalty of Rs 5 lakh per tower.

A high level delegation of DoT officers had visited a few tower sites in Mumbai yesterday as part of random verification of compliance. “One of the sites located adjacent to Ekta CHS, Kanjur Marg (East) covering Saidham Building and Vighnaharta Building having 11 base stations of Reliance Communications, TTML, Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Aircel and Loop Telecom were found radiating beyond permissible limits of the new radiation norms when measurements were carried out in some houses facing the nearby base transceiver station (BTS) antenna,” the department said in a communication.

Functioning of BTSs may be resumed only after the sites are made compliant.