Soon, drive to remove Pune billboards

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) would start a drive to remove billboards in the city in a week, in accordance with the new hoarding policy passed by the general body recently.

As per the policy, supposed to come into effect from April 1, all existing hoardings would be removed and monopoly rights of erecting hoardings and displaying advertisements on them would be given to four successful bidders in the four zones of the city.
The civic administration had declared that it would remove all hoardings after April 1, but no significant action was taken.

According to a senior officer of the civic body, of the 112 firms who have permission to put up billboards, 87 had approached the court. There was a stay on action against 30% of the total 1,700 hoardings in the city.

But these firms were served notices and the time limit for the notices is getting over. So, action to remove the hoardings would start within a week.

The successful bidders would have rights of advertisements on electric poles, billboards, banners, kiosks, balloons, gardens and tree guards. The contractor would have the responsibility to prevent illegal hoardings. The tender for hoarding rights would be floated soon.