Key takeaways All facility providers will have to seek right of way permission through an application regardless of whether the property is owned by a public entity or not. The definition of a facility provider includes the Union government or licensee or registered entity, such as a contractor or a sub-contractor. The Union government has the power to secure right of way in case of the owner of the property not granting permission. But the state can only exercise its power if it determines that it is necessary to install insfrastructure in public interest. The Union government will have to lay down a dispute resolution to resolve any objections. The infrastructure will not be considered as part of the property. The Indian government’s Ministry of Communications has released the draft of the Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022, to revamp the legal framework for governing the telecom sector and make it “future-ready”. The ministry will be accepting comments on the bill till October 20, 2022. One can send their comments to the following email address— naveen.kumar71@gov.in. There were signs that the government was working on a new framework after it released a consultation paper in July 2022. You can read Medianama’s summary of the paper here. The Minister of Communications, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said that the bill will usher in an era of licensing reforms through an online process at the 9th Annual Forum of Public Affairs Forum of India. “This will now reduce the paperwork and Right of Way (RoW) approval permission…
