Telecom infrastructure companies such as Bharti Infratel, Indus Towers and American Tower Corporation (ATC) led by industry lobby group Taipa (Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association) have sought immediate steps from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to ensure ease of doing business.
According to Economic Times, the group’s demand for a direct intervention comes after the former has made various representations to the telecom department (DoT), Niti Aayog, and the Cabinet Secretary between March and June 2017 over “few critical” issues that according to it might halt mobile infrastructure growth amid Narendra Modi’s ongoing flagship Digital India umbrella initiative.
The telecom infrastructure companies which have doubled the tower spread from 2.20 lakh in 2009 to 4.5 lakh towers in 2017, have been primarily demanding “implementation” of infrastructure status and infrastructure providers (or IP-1) inclusion in the Right-of-Way (RoW) policy.
Infrastructure lobby group, however, added that “retrograde steps” were creating immense hindrance to the Centre-driven big-ticket programs such as Digital India, financial inclusion initiative Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY), as well as Smart City project.
The industry group added that “regulatory uncertainties” were inhibiting the rollout of essential and critical infrastructure as well as dampening investors’ confidence.
