The BBMP council recently approved revised rates for laying Optic Fibre Cables (OFCs) and, for the first time, licence fee and ground rent for telecom towers.
The council has also approved hefty penalties in the range of ₹10,000 to ₹25 lakh for any violation of permit norms.
However, these revised rates will come into force after approval by the State government.
Sources said this would likely be done sooner, as these measures are part of the recommended reforms package by the Union Urban Development Department (UDD) for metropolises across the country.
Earlier, while the charge for OFCs for telecom service was ₹600/km, internet service providers were charged only ₹200/km. The new norm makes no such distinction and applies the same charge (₹600/km) for both.
Violation of road cutting permit norms and leaving the road unasphalted after work will attract a penalty of ₹25 lakh for commercial firms and other institutions, and ₹10 lakh for individuals. This was announced in the 2017-18 city budget that was recently approved by the State government.
The new norms, for the first time, formalises a licence fee for telecom towers at ₹50,000 and fixes a ground rent of ₹1 lakh/month if such towers are put up on BBMP buildings. Following a special drive by BBMP last year to get TSPs to declare their towers and pay a licence fee, the civic body has till date received 6,000 applications.
However, conservative estimates peg the number of towers in the city at a few thousand more than 6,000.