Telecos raise concern over new 'exorbitant' road work fees

Male City Council has started charging a hefty fee for the tilling and digging of roads in Male. With this, communications companies have started raising concerns.

The civic body has formulated a regulation for public works where roads are dug up  and sewers are opened up, which came into effect on 1 January. There are certain rules under which the work is to be carried out along with a penalty regulations for violations of the council regulations.

Expressing concern over the prices mentioned in the policy, an official of a communications company said that they now have to spend a lot of money on laying cables along the road and as a result, customers have to bear the burden.

As per the policy,:

With these prices, the telecom company had to charge their customers due to the huge cost of road tilling, even though they had installed cables for free in the past, said the official who spoke earlier.

"For example, if you go up to 50 feet, you pay MVR 100 per foot. If you tally, how much is that? Earlier, the city council used to charge only the fee charged by the road closure board. Then, if there is a loss while working, for example, if the pavement is damaged, the cost of constructing the new pavement is incurred," he said.

"We started charging a when we incurred high costs of road tilling and cable installation. We used to bear the labour cost earlier, which is done by our employees. But now, we are also paying an additional MVR 3,000 to lay a cable for the nearest house. Customers need to pay that MVR 3,000. It costs MVR 600 more to provide this service to the nearest house."

He said it was a big cost hike for water, electricity, internet and phone service providers.

Asked about the issue, the council is yet to give a specific response.