Lok Sabha Question No. 3506 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-03-22
Subject: Right of Way Permissions
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Sanjay(Kaka) Ramchandra Patil

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3506 TO BE ANSWERED ON 22 ND  MARCH, 2023

## RIGHT OF WAY PERMISSIONS

## 3506.   SHRI SANJAY KAKA PATIL:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

(a) whether  the  telecom  industry  has  complained  that  getting  right  of  way  permissions  and charging of exorbitant rates by various local bodies of cities are two reasons that hamper the effective laying of optic fibres;

- (b) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (c) whether the Government is taking any steps to redress this issue such as constitution of a standard rate;
- (d) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (e) whether the lack of fiberized base tower stations will affect the scaling up of 5G and if so, the details thereof; and

(f) the details of the steps taken by the Government to redress this and aid the effective spread of fiberized base tower stations?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS (SHRI DEVUSINH CHAUHAN)

(a) & (b) Yes, Associations of Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) / Infrastructure  Providers (IPs)  have  highlighted  that  getting  right  of way  permissions  and  charging  of  exorbitant  rates  by various Local Bodies of cities hampers the effective laying of optic fibres.

(c) & (d) Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has notified Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules,  2016  (ITRoW  Rules)  and  its  amendments  (2021,  2022)  for  standardisation  of  rates  for Overground and underground telecom infrastructure and DoT regularly follows up with States / UTs / Central Ministries so that they may adopt the Central Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules, 2016 and amendment thereof.

Also, GatiShakti Sanchar Portal - a Centralised RoW portal, launched on 14th May 2022, facilitates  online  application  processing,  clearance  and  dashboard  for  top  level  monitoring. The GatiShakti Sanchar portal has onboarded / integrated for all 36 States /UTs to accept, process and approve Right of Way (RoW) applications for both Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) and Towers through single  interface.  The  portal  is  also  integrated  with  central  ministries  viz.  Ministry  of  Railways,

Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and Ministry of Defence. The portal enables applicants like Telecom Service Provider  /  Infrastructure  Provider  (TSP/IP)  to  apply  for  RoW  approvals  to  various  agencies  of State/UT Governments, local bodies and Ministries at one common/ single portal. Dashboard has been enabled on the portal to view the State/ district wise status of applications, pendency, approvals, etc. This has brought Ease of Doing Business in RoW application approvals.

(e) & (f) The  higher  bandwidth  for  5G  user  connections  can  be  provided  if  backhaul connectivity to Base Transceiver Station (BTS) is of sufficient higher bandwidth. Fiberization of BTS is the media to achieve higher bandwidth.

DoT  has  been  working  with  Telecom  Service  Providers  (TSPs)  for  connecting  the  unfiberized BTSs with the nearest available OFC. As a result, the % of BTS which have been fiberized has increased from 34.29% in December-2021 to 37.08% in December-2022.

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