Telecom firms get green signal for towers, services on railway land

The move is likely to give 5G network a boost

The Ministry of Railways has opened its telecommunication services to private players, allowing them to install towers on land owned by it, Business Standard has learnt. So far, this right was reserved only for its own telecom arm — RailTel Corporation of India.

This comes months after the Union Cabinet eased land licensing fee (LLF) norms for railway land to attract private investment. In accordance with the new LLF policy, the existing rate of 7 per cent revenue sharing for mobile towers has been scrapped; instead, annual land use charges of 1.5 per cent of the market value of land would