Despite thousands of medical reports over the ill-effects of radiation from mobile towers on human health doing the rounds in the media worldwide, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation is planning to rent out the rooftops of municipal buildings to telecom operators for installing mobile towers.

The development comes even as a debate is on whether radiation from mobile towers is "possibly carcinogenic to humans" and might cause "glioma", a type of brain cancer. A proposal in this regard has been prepared and is likely to be placed in the general House meeting on Tuesday for approval.

As per the proposal, the rooftops of all the municipal buildings — barring schools, hospitals and dispensaries — owned by the East Delhi Corporation would be let out to telecom service providers for installation of mobile towers.

According to a senior official of East Corporation, several buildings of the civic body are located in commercial, institutional as well as residential areas and rooftops of most of these buildings are lying vacant, which could be given to telecom operators for installation of mobile towers.

"After trifurcation of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), all the three corporations are trying to exploit all possible source of revenue, of which cell phone towers have emerged as a prime source.

The revenue earned from all these sources will enable the civic bodies to become financially independent and will help fund various civic infrastructure projects announced in the Budget for the next fiscal by the corporation, an official said.

Allotment of rooftops for installation of mobile towers in East Delhi would be done through open bidding.

"The rooftops would be given out on a monthly rental basis. Whichever company offers the maximum rent would be allowed to install the towers," he added.

According to the civic body, allowing mobile companies to install their towers atop Government buildings would also put a check on these towers being installed illegally in several residential colonies.

As per estimates, East Delhi has 1,470 cell phone towers, of which 588 are illegal. Officials say a large number of towers have been installed in residential colonies without proper permission and clearance from the civic body.

Due to the growing awareness about the harmful radiation emitted from these towers, the corporation has received several requests for the removal of mobile towers from residential areas.