Cell towers under pollution watch

NEW DELHI: The city's cellphone services could get a jolt if the Delhi Pollution Control Committee's latest move to curb noise and air pollution is taken to its logical end.

Waking up to the hazards of cellphone towers in residential areas, the committee has sent out notices to the seven cellphone service providers in Delhi to set things right in three weeks.

Based on complaints from residents, the committee disclosed that most of the 6,000-odd mobile phone towers in the city were not conforming to guidelines for noise and air pollution. It, however, conceded that due to the "high number" of cellphone towers, it had earlier relaxed the registration rules.

On inspection of the towers recently, the committee found out that several diesel generator sets installed at these towers did not have the compulsory acoustic enclosures to curb noise pollution. Even the stack height of the DG sets was not high enough, and this resulted in increased air pollution.

"We had noticed these problems and were asking the service providers to take necessary measures but the number of complaints only grew. Finally we were forced to issue notice to them, asking them to register with DPCC," said J K Dadoo, chairman of the committee.

The notice sent to the service providers holds them guilty of violating the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986; Air Act, 1981; Noise Rules, 2000; Diesel Generator Set Stack Height guidelines; Noise Limit for Generator Sets; and guidelines for complying with limits for human exposure to electromagnetic fields as prepared by the Telecommunications Engineering Centre, DoT.