KOZHIKODE: More than 200 illegal mobile towers whose designs have not been approved are functioning in the city, according to studies carried out by corporation engineers.Official sources told ‘Express’ that the majority of these towers were being erected by three tower construction companies operating in the city. “When they want to construct a tower, they will send in a letter to us asking permission to construct the tower. The norm is that they should attach a detailed design of the tower so that we can verify it and approve it. As they fail to do so, we have no option but to reject their applications. But by that time, they would have finished building the mobile tower,” a corporation engineer said.With corporation engineers, who are tasked with ensuring that a tower is safe, not even seeing the design of these towers, it is possible that these towers present a significant health risk to people living adjacent to it. “If the regulations of mobile towers are not up to the mark, the waves they emit has the potential to cause a wide range of disorders ranging from sleeplessness and behavioural changes to air bubbles in lungs and brain tumors,” said a leading researcher who did not wish to be identified.Corporation officials are now planning to crack down these towers with squads formed for these purpose conducting inspections and raids at various suspected illegal towers. Officials said that successfully regulating these towers will also represent a financial windfall for the corporation as the money entitled to be collected in fines and other dues from existing unregistered towers will amount to more than three times the cost needed to legally get a new tower approved. “If the people constructing these towers had sought proper approval before constructing these towers, it would have cost them around `11,000. But now they will have to pay more than Rs 30,000 in fines and other dues,” said a corporation official.
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