Telecom Minister says legal support to RoW till December
New Delhi:
Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnav on Saturday said the legal backing for Right of Way (RoW) will be in place by December, and launched Gati Shakti Sanchar portal, which will centralize and expedite approvals for laying fiber and tower installations, as the country is ready for it. 5G rollout.
Gatishakti Sanchar portal will facilitate Centralized Right of Way (RoW) approval.
An online platform for industry to apply for RoW approval as they build telecom infrastructure for 5G services, Gati Shakti Sanchar Portal is an integrated platform covering all States and UTs and Central Government Ministries. Provides integrated, centralized approach.
For players, it promises ease of doing business, shortening the days involved in obtaining prescribed permissions, lowering costs.
Launching the portal, Vaishnav stressed on the need for legal provisions for Right of Way and promised that a strong legal backing would be given by December this year. Currently, the ROW rules are based on administrative process, and there is a need for a strong legal backing to empower local authorities, bring clarity on fee structure and fix accountability, he explained.
“This will be our next step. Also, all the portals that are out there, especially the Gati Shakti portal, the railway portal, the highway portal, and others… Integration of those… We will work on these two technical and legal aspects Vaishnava said.
Work on both these fronts has already started, and integration of portals is expected in the next 3-4 months, while the deadline for providing legal support is by the end of December.
When asked whether the legal provisions of RoW would also attract penalty for not meeting the approval deadline, the minister said generally there is a link between accountability and penalty.
“…Otherwise, it’s about deemed approval,” he said.
The new Dynamics Communication Portal is expected to significantly ease the process of ROW approvals for laying infrastructure by players, and provide a centralized and integrated approach for permissions.
In addition, the integration of the portal with GIS will provide greater visibility into the optical fiber network and digital network to the state government and various agencies. Vaishnav lauded the state governments for their proactive role in streamlining the processes and said that the time for approval of ROW has already come down to 22 days from 100 days.
Once the technical and legal aspects are worked out, the cycle of 22 days may further reduce to a week.
The minister said that the portal will act as a enabler for the purpose of ‘ease of doing business’ for the telecom infrastructure. The Minister said that timely settlement of RoW applications of various service and infrastructure providers will enable faster network creation, catalyzing the timely rollout of 5G.
The portal will enable applicants – telecom operators and infrastructure providers – to apply for write-of-way permission (for laying optical fiber cables and installing mobile towers) to state governments and local bodies on a single site.
For effective monitoring of ROW applications across the country, the portal is equipped with a dashboard which shows the state and district wise pending applications status.
By simplifying the ROW approval process, the portal will boost optical fiber cabling, accelerate fiberization and increase tower density for connectivity, ensuring overall better broadband speed and quality of service.
The portal is developed by MP State Electronics Development Corporation.
Industry body COAI lauded the initiative saying that with this portal, telecom service providers and infrastructure providers will be able to submit their applications and officials will be able to process and grant permissions in a timely manner for deployment of digital network infrastructure. Will be
The vision of this portal is to provide a collaborative institutional mechanism between all stakeholders including Central and State Governments, Central Land Ownership Authorities (Railways, Defence, Ports and others), local bodies and service providers to facilitate RoW applications and permissions . Deployment of digital infrastructure in the country.
SP Kochhar, Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) termed the new portal as a “milestone” that will enable the vision for ‘Digital India’.
Presently, the application process for setting up of digital infrastructure is getting delayed due to inconsistency and uncertainty of policy and procedures adopted at various levels. Therefore, there is a need to expedite the application process to overcome the challenges of implementation of Right of Way Rules-2016.
TR Dua, Director General, Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA), said, “The launch of this portal is a game changer and another milestone for the telecom industry, addressing the rapid rollout and earlier delays of digital infrastructure across the country. with less”.