Hoardings creating visual obstruction for commuters at Sati Choura in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Aug. 14: Police have decided to remove hoardings and other advertisement banners put up at and around prominent traffic intersections in the city.

Traffic officials said all illegal hoardings at such places would be pulled down to stop “visual obstruction”. Among those to be pulled down are hoardings near Badambadi traffic post, OMP square, Sikarpur, Sati Choura, Ranihat traffic signals and at the College Square area.

“Visual obstruction might led to accidents and we have decided to remove all hoardings at the earliest,” said traffic ACP P.K. Dalai.

Dalai said a proposal was also being made to declare traffic junctions as no-hoarding zones.

The move comes in the wake of rampant violations by various advertisement companies that have put up banners and hoardings at a number of junctions illegally in the city. Senior traffic officials and Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) detected such violations during a joint inspection last week.

Despite high court orders, hoardings have been installed near Sati Choura crematorium as well as near the Ravenshaw University campus at College Square.

“The entire city is dotted with hoardings and advertisements and this is causing problems for the commuters because they are unable to spot traffic signals in some cases,” said Sanjay Mohanty, a resident of Mission Road. He said overgrown trees also cover signals at some places.

Sources said the civic body was losing revenue with a lot of advertisement companies putting up hoardings illegally at various places.

Senior civic officials said a committee had been formed to conduct a detailed assessment of the total number of hoardings, including rooftop ones, in the city.

“We have decided to remove unauthorised hoardings that have come up at prominent locations. Pending dues will also be collected from the violators,” said CMC commissioner Gyana Das.