The city is dotted with crumbling, ugly frames of hoardings that are a threat to the safety of pedestrians walking along footpaths and standing under them.
Over 250 of these hoardings have been without maintenance for about two years as they have had no advertisements and no agency took them on lease in this period. Usually, outdoor advertising agencies that take the hoardings on lease from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation are responsible for their upkeep.
In September, mayor Firhad Hakim had promised a policy for outdoor advertising in the city, but the civic body has not announced it yet. Sources said that the policy had been sent to the state government for approval. They were unable to provide any details of the policy.
Esplanade
“It is true that the hoardings are an eyesore. They have been lying in this manner for nearly two years now,” said the owner of an outdoor advertising agency in Kolkata.
The Telegraph spotted such hoardings in dilapidated states near Sovabazar Metro station on Central Avenue, on Park Street, on Shakespeare Sarani, near Jeevandeep building in the Maidan area and in many parts of Bhowanipore, among others. The rusted frames were broken, parts of them had twisted and were hanging dangerously.
“The frames need maintenance. They need to be painted. Corrosion, rust have to be treated and there should be a periodic check of the nuts and bolts of the frames and welding of the joints,” said a KMC official.
Harish Mukherjee Road
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been few takers for hoardings. A KMC official said that the civic body had leased out the hoardings to an agency before the pandemic but it left midway into the contract. A second company was given a lease during the pandemic but it left citing no business.
The KMC has done little to repair the structures.
There are primarily two kinds of outdoor advertising hoardings in the city. The KMC owns the ones that rise from footpaths on poles — there are around 260 of these. The others are ones jutting out from building walls, which are owned by the building owners. The owners and the agency that displays ads on them are responsible for them. The condition of these is often no better. There are about 1,500 such hoardings in the city.
