Temporary hoardings that were installed before Puja, including the overhead gates across roads, continue to dominate many of the key thoroughfares in Calcutta.
A drive through the city on Sunday revealed a multitude of hoardings situated along Central Avenue, APC Road, Rashbehari Avenue, Madanmohantala Street, and Asutosh Mukherjee Avenue. At Madanmohantala Street, very few of the hoardings across the road had been taken down, and they continued to intrude upon the roadway space.
As some government and private offices have restarted their activities, and with all private schools reopening on Wednesday, there are concerns among commuters that the diminished road space from the gates will pose challenges.
overhead gates across Madanmohantala Street
According to a new regulation by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, hoardings and banners must be removed within seven days of Dashami, which is Thursday.
Owners of outdoor advertising agencies said they have already started removing the hoardings and will abide by the regulation. One of them, however, added that the bamboo frames on which the flexes are hung may not be removed within seven days.
This is the first time there is a deadline to remove the temporary hoardings put up ahead of Durga Puja. Till last year, the hoardings used to hang from the bamboo frames across the city as the KMC watched helplessly.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Advertisement Policy) Regulations, 2025, says that “temporary advertisements (put up by both advertising agencies and Puja Committees) may be allowed from 7 (seven) days before Mahalaya and may be continued up to 7 (seven) days after Bijaya Dashami.”
Many Calcuttans have doubted the safety of such temporary structures. They block the view of commuters and may also injure pedestrians if they collapse.
“We have already started removing the temporary hoardings put up before Durga Puja, and we will remove all the hoardings before Thursday,” said Kesto Saha, director of Karukrit, an outdoor advertising agency. Saha said Karukrit had put up about 200 hoardings during Puja.
“I am not certain whether the bamboo frames will be taken away by that time. The decorators erected the bamboo frames, and we are not in a position to remove them,” he said.
Anindya Banerjee, secretary of the Outdoor Advertising Association, said that around 20 outdoor advertising agencies were involved in putting up the temporary hoardings during Durga Puja. The association has 75 outdoor advertising agencies as its members.
“We have a common WhatsApp group with officials of KMC where the deadline to remove the hoardings was clearly mentioned. All outdoor advertising agencies are aware of the seven-day deadline after Dashami. I saw many hoardings have been removed already,” said Banerjee.
There is no count of how many hoardings were put up before Puja as the agencies do not need any permission from the KMC for the Puja-related temporary advertisements, said a KMC official. The civic body gains no revenue from the advertisements, he said.
The official said the regulations empower the civic body to impose a penalty that is three times the actual fee. The KMC can also recover the charges of removing the hoardings if the agencies fail to remove them on their own.
“If the hoardings continue to be displayed after the due date, we will impose a penalty on the brand associated with the product advertised on the hoarding. Our previous experiences indicate that brands tend to halt payments to outdoor agencies once they are informed of the penalty by the KMC. We are hopeful that the outdoor agencies will remove all hoardings, so we will not be compelled to take any further action,” said the official.