A public bus displays an ad with pictures of actors Abhishek Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra in Mumbai on Monday. (Reuters)

New Delhi, April 27: The urban development ministry has written to states asking them to remove billboards and get companies to advertise on public transport instead.

“The money generated should be put in an urban transport fund,” a senior official in the ministry said. “This fund will then be used to improve public transport.”

The move — which will require states to change their advertising policy — will go a long way in making roads safer, according to the ministry.

“There have been court orders against hoardings,” an official said. “They just add to visual pollution. Research has shown that they distract drivers. If these advertisements are put on moving vehicles, they will not cause any accidents.”

Chennai and Mumbai have already been ordered by the Supreme Court to clear the skyline of billboards.

Several cities have been using public utilities as advertising space.

Bus shelters in Delhi — now gleaming in a new-age steel avatar — have been beneficiaries of generous advertising.

“Escalators in Hyderabad in certain areas have been financed through advertisement revenue,” an official said.

The New Delhi Municipal Council — the civic agency responsible for Lutyens’ Delhi —has built toilets in the area only through money received from advertising.

The ministry also wants states to formulate policies to reduce the number of private vehicles on roads.

“It is important to improve the quality of buses in cities,” the official said. “About 60 per cent of the people in cities travel by buses. But the buses currently in use in many cities are cages, fit only for animals.”

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission — under the urban development ministry — has given funds to cities to improve their public transport, but there is still need for the system to be self-sustaining, the official said.

A dedicated urban transport fund, set up with money from advertisements, will ensure that the process does not stop after the term of the five-year mission ends.