The Times of India 23.09.2014
BMC to regulate hoardings on private land
BHUBANESWAR:
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has decided to regulate the
advertisement put up on private lands to increase its revenue and
organise it to avoid cluttered look of the city.
Licence fee
for different categories of advertisements such as hoarding neon signs,
kiosks, banners and electronic advertisements are being reviewed. The
civic body is hoping to fetch Rs 5 crore annually from the licence fee.
Last year, it got Rs 2.5 crore.
“The tariff structures will be
changed. For different ads taking more space of the cityscape will be
charged more licence fee. Earlier, we had uniform tariff,” said BMC
spokesperson Srimanta Mishra.
He said the new regulation would
also include safety measures to be taken up before putting up of the
hoardings. “We will issue strict guidelines as where the ads should be
put on display. If it is located at a place, where it can cause damage
to other properties and human lives during higher wind speed, we will
not allow it,” said Mishra.
He said that the advertisers would
be asked to submit a copy of the agreement with the house owners for
putting up the hoardings. Secondly, the BMC would also look into whether
a particular advertisement is killing the beauty of the city, he added.
The civic body on Saturday finalized the tender process for
advertisements that are put up on government lands. A private party has
agreed to pay Rs 13.13 crore annually up to three years for taking up
the advertisement contract.
