Cuttack, July 9: The municipal corporation will remove all small billboards and hoardings that create inconvenience for the smooth flow of traffic and add to visual pollution.

The hoardings to be removed measure around 10ftX10ft.

"The exercise will be undertaken as part of a decision taken by the Cuttack Municipal Corporation's standing committee for licence and appeal to regularise placement of advertisements in the city," the civic body's deputy commissioner Manoja Behera said today.

The committee took the decision on Thursday.

Earlier, the civic body had launched online system of registration for advertisers and self-declaration of advertisements to check unauthorised hoardings and billboards.

Under the new system enforced from this fiscal, hoardings and billboards undeclared by advertisers during online registration will be treated as unauthorised and removed without notice.

Official sources said 47 agencies had registered online and made self-declaration of advertisements so far. The declarations indicated that there were 1,725 hoardings and billboards, covering an area of nearly 2.56 lakh sqft.

"We are in the process of physically verifying the self declarations made online. In the process, hoardings not included in the self-declarations are being treated as unauthorised and pulled down," Sahu said, adding the 10ftX10ft hoardings and billboards, including those listed in the declarations, would be removed as part of the new exercise.

Committee chairman Bikash Ranjan Behera said the decision to remove the small hoardings and billboards was part of the implementation of the Odisha Outdoor Advertisement and Hoarding Policy - 2015.

"Those will be removed as part of the new policy, which prohibits location of billboards at major intersections, bends and curves and hoardings or advertisement boards that hinder the effectiveness of a traffic control system such as traffic lights and signage," Behera said.

The state government rolled out the new rule through a gazette notification on January 21 last year. The new guidelines intend to ensure high safety for road users and assure the commuters of traffic efficiency.

"As part of implementation of the new policy, the size has been considered to ensure that the aesthetic beauty of the city is not disturbed," Behera said, adding that hoardings would be promoted primarily in the commercial parts of the city.

The civic body is implementing the new policy in a phased manner.

Official sources said the policy also prescribed for the civic body to declare "front of/inside the compound wall of/on the walls of" buildings of archaeological, architectural, aesthetical and historical or heritage importance as no advertisement zones". The same status is prescribed for places of worship and religious significance, statues, minarets, educational institutions, cremation grounds, hospitals, nursing homes, police stations, post offices, trees and water bodies. It also prescribes the distance between two advertisements to be not less than 100m on main city roads and highways.