MAPUSA
Conscious of the connectivity problem faced by the student community, the State cabinet on Wednesday approved a decision to reduce rent on mobile towers in rural areas to facilitate companies to install mobile communication towers in remote places.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said the rent for mobile towers in rural areas has been fixed at 10 percent of the existing rent for the first five years, which will be hiked to 25 percent later.
“Since the demand for internet connection is very poor, nobody comes forward to install towers in remote areas. It is not feasible for tower companies to sustain when the demand for connections is poor. We have now fixed a rent at 10 percent of the normal rate for towers. So even if they get fewer connections, they won’t run in loss,” Sawant said.
The monthly rent for operators of mobile service is Rs 50,000 in urban and Rs 25,000 in rural areas, as per the Goa Telecom Infrastructure Policy 2020.
The chief minister informed that applications to set up 144 towers were pending with the government.
“Earlier, the PWD issued NOCs to tower companies to set up the towers. Now, the PWD will give direct permission for installation of the towers on government land,” he said.
Although connectivity was a problem at several places, yet people continue to oppose installation of mobile towers.
“We have at least 80 complaints of obstruction for setting up of towers at different places,” Sawant said.
He said the PWD has identified black spots and efforts will be made to install mobile communication towers to facilitate better connectivity.
The mobile connectivity issue came into focus after schools in the State were allowed to hold classes in online mode.
While students from urban areas were relatively better off, most of the students in rural areas were found moving out of their homes in search of connectivity.
