After allowing outdoor advertising agencies to put up and use billboards for free for years, the Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) has decided to rein them in as part of its resource mobilisation programme.

According to estimates, not keeping a tab on the billboards has cost the civic coffers about Rs 500 crore over the past 25 years. It has also spoilt the Howrah skyline.

More than 500 signboards have now been identified as illegal by the civic body.

The advertising agencies have been asked to pull them down. When no initiative was taken, the HMC dismantled a few billboards in prime locations.

?For a long time the issue remained under wraps. Nobody tried to find out what was happening. The HMC could have earned a huge amount as revenue from the display boards,? stated a civic employee.

G.L. Gyne, commissioner of the town?s civic body, said: ?We had sent a notice to all the agencies. After receiving no reply within the stipulated time, we dismantled about 10 or 15 display boards that had been put up illegally.?

Soon after, some of the outdoor advertising agencies wrote to the municipal commissioner, agreeing to abide by the HMC rules.

Commenting on the move, Dilip Chatterjee, public relations officer of Selvel, an outdoor advertising agency, said: ?We have few billboards in Howrah. We feel that the civic body has made the right move. The agencies must abide by the rules.?

The revenue rate for the billboards has not yet been finalised. The proposed rate was rejected by the agencies on the grounds that it was higher than that in Calcutta.

?Various factors will decide the rates, the most important being where the billboards are to be put up. The size of the billboards will also be an important determinant. The rates, however, cannot exceed that of billboards in Calcutta,? explained Indranil Sengupta, assistant engineer, HMC.