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| A bulldozer of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation dismantles a hoarding along NH-5 near Pahala in ward No. 4 on Friday. Telegraph picture |
Bhubaneswar, May 6: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) today launched a drive to dismantle all illegal hoardings along the NH-5 stretch that falls within its jurisdiction.
On the first day, a team comprising officials of the enforcement, licensing and recovery wings of the BMC dismantled 10 hoardings along the Hanspal and Pahala stretch in ward No. 4.
Sources said that bigger hoardings would be brought down tomorrow as their dismantling required special gas cutters. “The drive will continue for several days to eliminate all illegal hoardings along NH-5 as they stand on government land. On the other hand, huge advertisements also distract motorists and pose a threat to vehicles plying between the twin cities during storms,’’ said deputy municipal commissioner Priyadarshi Mohapatra.
The campaign started at around 9.30 this morning and covered the left side of the national highway from the Bhubaneswar-end towards Cuttack.
The BMC joint team even took the help of a bulldozer to dismantle some hoardings completely and they collected two tipper loads of discarded iron material used in erecting the structures.
“We have razed hoardings measuring around 4,000 square feet. From tomorrow, the right side of NH-5 from the Bhubaneswar-end will be taken up,’’ said Mohapatra.
Owners of several huge structures on the left side of the highway from the Bhubaneswar-end have started dismantling their illegal hoardings as the BMC team is scheduled to bring those down tomorrow.
However, structures of more than 1,500 square foot on the Hanspal-Pahala stretch were spared today and their owners had been asked to dismantle them those on their own.
“These iron structures are so big that we cannot use a bulldozer to dismantle them. Specialised gas cutters will be needed to dismantle them. If we dismantle those with what we have now, chances of accidents cannot be ruled out. Hence we have to be extra careful with these structures,’’ said a senior BMC official.
Senior officer of the licensing section Anil Kumar Patnaik said: “BMC has already asked the owners of the hoardings to put tags with certain specifications and numbers so that legalised hoardings can be identified easily. However, a majority of the hoardings along NH-5 are not tagged and this is in violation of the BMC directive.’’
Apart from erecting illegal structures on government land, the hoardings also pose a threat to vehicles on the highway during natural calamities like storms.
“There is a chance of damage to passing vehicles if huge hoardings are uprooted from their base structures. Especially those on the roof of the buildings are very dangerous. But in this matter the BMC has its own limitations as the super structures come under the purview of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA). Any structure raised over a building technically does not belong to the BMC. So we cannot act against them on our own,’’ said a senior BMC official.
On April 29, a huge hoarding hit a college bus in the city when a powerful thunder squall destroyed many billboards but no one was injured. Similar mishaps took place in 2009 near Kalpana and Rupali square.
A senior BMC executive, who was in charge-of the hoarding leasing business of the organisation for years, said: “In practice, more than 650 hoardings are listed for which the BMC calls tender but there could be more in the city. Most of the hoardings are either on Janpath or the Fortune Tower Road. But from the data it was found that more than 60 prominent and illegal ones are along NH-5.’’
Former chief secretary and president Citizens’ Apex Association N.K. Panda welcomed BMC action on illegal hoardings along NH-5. “But what about big and dangerous hoardings on the major thoroughfares of the city? They should be removed completely as they pose a grave danger to the people. If the civic authorities have limited power over their existence, the BDA authorities should act tough to ensure a safer city for all,’’ he added.