Indian Telegraph (Infrastructure Safety) Rules 2022

Why is in news? Department of Telecommunications formulates the Indian Telegraph (Infrastructure Safety) Rules 2022

Digital Infrastructure and Services are increasingly emerging as key enablers and critical determinants of a country’s growth and well-being.

The Central government has therefore envisioned fulfilling the communication needs of the citizens and enterprises through establishment of a resilient, secure, accessible and affordable Digital Communications Infrastructure and Services.

Government/ TSPs/ IPs together have established the much-required pan India telecom infrastructure networks for various telecom sector issues of concern.

Various agencies often undertake excavation activities wherein underground utility assets get damaged wither due to lack of knowledge of agencies about existing utilities or lack of coordination with utility asset owner agencies.

Accordingly, the need for rules/ regulation/ policy to address the issues of safety to the existing telecom infrastructure has arisen for which the Government has formulated the Indian Telegraph (Infrastructure Safety) Rules, 2022 published in the Gazette of India on 3rd January, 2023.

The Salient features of these rules and App are:

Any person wishes to exercise a legal right to dig or excavate any property which is likely to cause damage to a telegraph infrastructure shall give notice to the licensee, prior to commencement, through common portal.

The information shall include the name and address of the person exercising the legal, agency details, contact details, date and time of start of the exercise, description and location of the exercise, and the reasons for such dealing.

The person digging or excavating shall take appropriate action on precautionary measures provided by the licensee.

In case no licensee provides details within the prescribed time, the person having legal right to dig or excavate shall be free to dig or excavate the property thereafter.

Further, any person, who has dug/excavated any property causing damage to a telegraph infrastructure, shall be liable to pay the damage charges to the telegraph authority. The damage charges shall be computed based on such expenses as may be incurred in restoring damages.

Once the asset owner agencies map their underlying assets with GIS coordinates on PM GatiShakti NMP platform, it will also be possible to know the presence of underlying utility assets, at the point of interest, before start of excavation.

Advantages (For Government – Central & State/UTs): Many utilities can be saved from unwanted cuts and wasteful cost towards restoration, thus saving thousands of crores for businesses and associated tax loss to Govt.

Advantages (For Citizens): Inconvenience caused to citizens because of frequent breakdown may be reduced due to better synergy between the agencies.