The Tarang Sanchar Portal will help clear myths and misconceptions with regard to mobile towers the Department of Telecom (DoT), Ministry of Communications, said on Wednesday following the launch of the web portal in New Delhi.
A senior official of the DoT said the portal for sharing information on mobile towers and electromagnetic field (EMF) emission compliances empowers the common man person to know at the click of a mouse the mobile towers in a particular locality and whether they are compliant to the EMF emission norms defined by the government.
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The launch of the portal assumes significance in Goa as people in many parts of the State have been opposing the setting up of towers owing to the risk of health hazards associated with it.
A press release issued by the Press Information Bureau here said the DoT has prescribed standards for electromagnetic emissions from mobile towers that are 10 times stricter than the standards prescribed by International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection and those recommended by World Health Organization. The Union government has taken adequate steps to ensure that telecommunication service providers strictly adhere to these prescribed norms.
Though there is no scientific evidence of any health concerns from low power mobile base transceiver stations, the DoT felt a need to educate citizens about EMF emissions from mobile towers and status of their compliances. DoT hopes the portal will generate confidence among the public about effectiveness of the EMF compliance process in India.
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The portal has a public interface with a map-based search feature which will help users view the mobile towers in any locality. Detailed information about any tower site will be sent to email to the users on request. Users can also seek information on the EMF emission at a location by paying an online fee of ₹4,000. The tests will be conducted by the local Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) unit of DoT and the report will be submitted.
The portal also comprises EMF Overview and Learn sections, which provide rticles, booklets and videos, to educate citizens about EMF and the coverage of telecom services. The public can also access the ‘DoT Initiatives’ section.
Additional features
In addition to Government to Citizen services, the portal facilitates Government to Business service delivery in a transparent and eco-friendly manner. The portal enables a method of maintenance and retention of end-to- end records, including submission of compliance by Telecom Service Providers and paperless processing by TERM cells. The Tarang Sanchar portal is a unique initiative and is one of the largest and most complex inter-operator databases of its kind in the world. It has the complete collated technical details of over 14.5 lakh base stations spread across the country.