The Coimbatore Corporation will soon initiate steps to ensure that structural stability certificate is mandatory to let out buildings to erect mobile phone towers.
The Corporation also said that it would explore the possibility of levying a charge on those who rented out the premises for the purpose. The civic body arrived at the aforementioned decisions at the Friday’s Ordinary Council meeting after South Zone Chairman M. Perumalsamy spoke in this regard.
Deputy Commissioner S. Sivarasu said that the Corporation had estimated that there were 2,000 towers in the city and had proposed to collect Rs. 30,000 a tower from those who had rented out their premises. But it had not thus far collected any money. The Corporation could collect money only from the owners of the premises and not from the companies that owned the towers, for there was no legal provision to do so.
The Corporation had already forwarded a proposal in this regard to the State Government and to date it awaited clearance.
A few councillors, who joined the issue, said that the Corporation should at least make it mandatory for the owners to obtain the structural stability certificate before issuing the necessary clearance. A few others also suggested that the civic body work in tandem with the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation in this regard. After hearing the councillors, Commissioner G. Latha said that the Corporation would speak to senior officials in the State Government, obtain legal opinion and proceed on the issue.
