Any company advertising on BEST’s King Long AC buses will have to pay the market price for the ads which will be displayed in sunscreen films.
The recent Supreme Court verdict regarding the display of full body wrap advertisements on AC buses will likely result in more than 40 new AC Volvo buses to be inducted in the undertaking’s fleet.
As per the Supreme Court verdict, Topway Multitrade Pvt Ltd or any other company advertising on BEST’s King Long AC buses will have to pay the market price for the ads which will be displayed in sunscreen films.
Early this year, the Tardeo Regional Transport Office had objected to the full body wrap advertisements arguing that it affected visibility in the buses and the BEST was forced to remove the ads from AC buses.
This affected a deal concerning advertisements on the King Long buses between Topway and the BEST which was earning Rs15,000 per bus per month.
An open tender for the advertising contract revealed the market price to be Rs80,000 and Topway has already begun paying the market price.
Now, the BEST undertaking plans to send two King Long buses with sunscreen films which will have at least 50% visibility to the RTO for clearance.
If the buses are cleared, this will help put another deal with Asian Concierge on track.
As per the terms of the deal, 50 Volvos were to be added in a phased manner to the AC bus fleet of 272 on lease for 10 years, in return for advertising rights on the buses and on 150 bus shelters across the city for three years. The maintenance costs were also to be borne by the firm for three years.
The deal had come to a standstill as the private firm could not display full body wrap advertisements. Thus, its revenues were hit severely and it stopped the supply of Volvo buses after delivering six.
A senior BEST official said: “The Supreme Court decision is a welcome development. This should now help the contractor supply the remaining 44 buses.”
MB Jadhav, Regional Transport Officer of the Central RTO said: “A representative of the private firm which has a contract regarding King Long buses informed me about the court’s decision. I asked him to give me the copy of the order. We will look into the buses’ visibility aspect. If the visibility norms are taken care of, why should we object to the advertising?”
Om Prakash Gupta, general manager of the BEST, chose to be circumspect. He said that the contractor to supply all the 50 buses by May will have to be closely looked into again for any serious violations.
“I am hopeful about the deal working out but the actual status of the deal will only be clear after all these issues are sorted out,” said Gupta.
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