KMC to come up with hoarding & advertisement policy soon

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will soon come up with its ‘Hoarding and Advertisement Policy’ ensuring that the civic body has the last say when it comes to putting up hoardings in the city guaranteeing KMC of its due revenue share.

“The Member-Mayor-In-Council (MMIC) meeting held at KMC on Thursday under the chairmanship of Mayor Firhad Hakim approved the policy which will be placed in the ensuing KMC house for the final nod before implementation,” a senior KMC official said. According to the official, it is mandatory to take the nod of KMC for installing any advertisement hoardings in the city, but due to some legal complexities in the rules, a number of companies would illegally put up advertisements depriving the KMC of its revenue share. “With the new advertisement policy in place, the revenue sharing will be in a 50:50 ratio,” he added.

The KMC will decide the characteristics and dimensions of advertisement hoardings depending upon the areas in the city. Mono stand hoardings will be encouraged.

The policy is aimed at reducing the mushrooming of private hoardings emerging as eyesores. In certain areas like Dalhousie, Camac Street, Park Street etc there will be restrictions on such hoardings.

The Metro Railways will have to share revenue at 50: 50 rate for advertisements in Metro pillars. Till date, the agencies putting up Metro ads would only pay license fees and in some cases they have not coughed up the same too depriving the KMC of its revenue share.

QR code will be mandatory for advertisement hoardings or banners in the city. “As soon as a person will scan the QR code, all details related to the same like its tender, work order, agency that has installed it will be available at once. Any person will be able to know whether the concerned hoarding is legal or illegal,” the official added.