Jamshedpur: Local urban body Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) has initiated a drive to remove all hoardings and billboards that obstruct the vision of motorists and pose safety threats near commercial hubs.
During the nearly four-hour drive, which began on Friday afternoon at Sakchi market, JNAC staff dismantled over five huge hoardings fixed on metallic support along Kalimati Road and Straight Mile Road with the help of gas cutters amid police security.
"The drive will continue in Sakchi and other commercial hubs. This time we will dismantle the iron structures on which the hoardings are put up so that the ad agencies think twice before installing such hoardings along roads. We have identified nearly 50 such hoardings in commercial hubs," JNAC special officer Sanjay Kumar Pandey said.
The special officer said a specific location would be identified each day to conduct the drive.
"We are removing the structures through gas cutters because using excavators to pull down such huge structures would create traffic bottlenecks on key roads. The purpose is to remove all hoardings that block motorists' vision besides posing safety threat to commuters on days when the weather is stormy," the JNAC official said.
The JNAC is also making a list of such hoardings that have been installed over multi-storied buildings.
"We have begun a survey in commercial hubs such as Sakchi and Bistupur. Huge hoardings atop large buildings can pose serious threat to human life if they come crashing down. We will be identifying such spots and filing cases against the advertisement agency and the owner of the building under Bihar Prevention of Defacement of Property Act (1985)," Pandey said.
Incidentally, the Jharkhand urban development department had adopted the Bihar Act since Jharkhand's creation in 2000.
Under the Act, offenders can be jailed for six months and may have to pay a fine of up to Rs 50,000 Commuters welcomed the move.
"Besides posing safety threat, the big hoardings near Kalimati roundabout in Sakchi were also marring the beauty of the city. If JNAC practises what it preaches then we will not witness traffic bottlenecks on this stretch. One hope the drive continues," said Baljeet Singh (35), a computer operator at an ancillary unit in Adityapur.
