Hoardings that have been pulled down in Cuttack. Pictures by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, May 24: Pulling down of all billboards and hoardings within the city limits by the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) had been completed a fortnight ago, but there seems to be no end to the impasse over granting advertisement rights for them.

CMC is still searching for a way out that would check illegal hoardings and unauthorised billboards vis-à-vis increasing earnings of the civic body. At a meeting of senior officials and the tender committee comprising corporators yesterday, a section of the panel members rejected the proposal for fixation of Rs 1.20 crore as offset price while inviting bidders for advertisement rights. “The situation warrants scaling down of the offset price,” said a committee member.

The impasse has been on for nearly two months now. The civic body had invited bidders through a tender for advertisement rights for erection of hoardings, frames and glow signs by way of granting the yearly licence for 2011-12. But there was no response by March 25 reportedly because the offset price in the tender was fixed at Rs 1.20 crore. Subsequently, the CMC council had decided to pull down all bill boards and hoardings after the licences issued earlier for them expired on March 31.

Mayor Saumendra Ghosh is hopeful that the issue would be resolved by the municipal council and fresh tenders would follow soon. “The issue of offset price will be decided by the council which will meet on May 27. Accordingly, bidders will be invited through a tender,” the mayor told The Telegraph today.

“Private parties will be allowed to put up rooftop hoardings by direct negotiation with the concerned owners, but they will have to pay licence fee to CMC. Besides, a holding tax will be assessed on residential buildings with roof-top hoardings in commercial category,” Ghosh said.

CMC was apparently wary of mushrooming illegal hoardings and unauthorised billboards. Though their number had steadily increased in recent years, the civic body failed to collect the licence fee for a large number of them and its annual earnings from hoardings remained restricted between Rs 75 lakh and Rs 80 lakh.

“By outsourcing the collection of tax on advertisement through billboards and hoardings, we hoped to increase the annual earnings by fixing the offset price for the bidding at Rs 1.20 crore. A tender for the purpose was called in March this year. Unfortunately, there was no response,” municipal commissioner R.N. Nanda said.

“A fresh effort is under way after pulling down all billboards and hoardings with the objective of checking illegal hoardings and unauthorised billboards,” Nanda said.

Official sources said the operation involving pulling down billboards and hoardings had revealed that more than 20 agencies were involved in putting them up. Though there was around 70,000 sq ft of hoardings and bill boards within the municipal limits, a sizeable number of them had no sanction. Several of them did not even carry the name of the agency.

Prior to this, the CMC had called tenders in March 2008 fixing an offset price of Rs 75 lakh. Though the tender was finalised, it was challenged in the high court by one of the bidders. Acting on it, the high court had issued an interim injunction on bid finalisation. The stay order continued till the disposal of the case after more than two-and-a-half years. Earlier, the CMC had entered into a three-year agreement with a private company in 2002. The company, while enjoying the sole rights of putting up advertisement hoardings, was expected to pay Rs 27 lakh in the first year, Rs 29 lakh in second year and Rs 32.67 lakh in the third year.