Indus Towers, the country’s largest telecom tower company, is aiming to become diesel-free in the next 4-6 years, even as it will invest ₹350 crore this year for solutions and technology to reduce carbon emissions.
Indus Towers is a three-way joint venture of Bharti Infratel, Vodafone India and Aditya Birla Telecom (providing telecom services under Idea brand). Bharti Infratel and Vodafone India hold 42 per cent stake each in the company, while the remaining is held by Aditya Birla Telecom. The company has about 1.25 lakh towers across 15 circles in the country.
“We are looking at every existing and future solutions to make all our towers diesel-free, and we are looking at deploying all existing and emerging technologies to reach this goal. This year we have converted 50 per cent of our telecom sites into green sites,” Indus Towers CEO Bimal Dayal said.
The company has expanded its green sites portfolio to over 62,689 mobile tower sites across the country. At present, Indus Towers operates more than 86,200 sites as outdoor sites, totalling 70 per cent of portfolio, by eliminating usage of air-conditioners at such sites. The company’s initiatives such as shut air-conditioner and diesel gensets programme have resulted in reduction of carbon emissions. These are equivalent to planting 27 million trees and diesel savings of 200 million litres in last 8 years.
As of June 30, 2017, the company has 2,97,867 tenancies.