Delhi Municipal Corporation asked to explain rationale behind raising mobile tower installation fee

New Delhi, May 19 (ANI): The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought an explanation from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for raising charges for allowing mobile operators to install towers.

The MCD had raised the charges from Rs one lakh to Rs five lakh.

The High Court in its order restrained the MCD and asked it to file a reply within two days.

On May 13, the High Court had restrained the MCD from sealing illegal mobile phone towers in the national capital after the mobile operators challenged the decision to hike the charges.

The mobile operators had contended that the MCD's decision was arbitrary and without any sound basis.

The MCD had started sealing of illegal mobile phone towers after the deadline for operators to apply for regularization by paying the hiked amount had expired.

The MCD had said out of 5,364 towers in the city, only 2,412 have requisite permission and the remaining 2,952 were illegal.

Earlier, the MCD had sealed over 300 illegal towers and given several deadlines to the tower operators to apply for regularization in keeping with new guidelines.

On February 9, the MCD had brought in a new policy on mobile towers. (ANI)