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.