DoT notifies right of way rules

The Department of Telecommunication on Wednesday notified the right of way rules under the Telecommunications Act, 2023, which prescribe how telecommunication infrastructure, including mobile towers, poles, common ducts and conduits to hold cabling, small cells, street furniture, and the like, can be installed over public and private property. First, the central and state governments are now empowered to direct the authorised entities and public entities that own the infrastructure to set up temporary telecom network above the ground “in public interest or in case of special public events” under Rule 10. Third, under rule 12, the central government can notify projects as “special projects” in “public interest” for which all permissions required for establishing the overground or underground network will be “deemed to have been granted” and the digital portal will automatically generate a “deemed permission” for such applications. “The rules appeared to say that one will not need to deal with multiple public entities or portals for grant of permission, but now mentioning that other portals can be linked on Sugam Sanchar portals should not defeat the purpose of having a single window clearance for all right of way permissions from all public entities from this portal itself,” she said. Under the rules, for installation of small cells, the facility provider will pay the public entity ₹300 per annum for per street furniture in urban area and ₹150 per annum per street furniture in rural area.