Hoardings on display in Cuttack. Pictures by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, March, 23: Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) has moved one step closer to implementing its decision to outsource collection of tax on advertisement, through billboards and hoardings within city limits on government and municipal land.

CMC has offered advertisement rights for erection of any hoarding, frame and glow sign by way of granting yearly licence from the next fiscal year.

“A tender for the purpose has already been issued, with the offset price fixed at Rs 1.2 crore for the bidders for 2011-12,” said Saumendra Ghosh, the mayor. The last date for receiving bids has been fixed for March 25.

“All CMC and government land except railway land and national highways will be within the purview of the successful bidder. But for using any private land, building and rooftop, due consent has to be obtained from the owner concerned,” Ghosh added.

The civic body had declared the area in front of Ravenshaw University, Bajrakabati, Chandini Chouk and areas adjacent to judicial establishments as “hoarding free zones”.

Mushrooming of illegal hoardings and unauthorised billboards had been a major cause of concern for the civic body.

With apparently no clear information on either the number of hoardings in the city or the number put up without sanction, the civic body was failing to collect the licence fee for a substantially large number of hoardings.

“The successful bidder will have to submit a detailed of list of hoarding boards, kiosks, glow signs used for advertisement with their locations within one month,” said R. N. Nanda, municipal commissioner.

CMC’s annual earnings from licence fee from hoardings have been around Rs 75 lakh to Rs 80 lakh.

But by outsourcing collection of tax on advertisement through billboards and hoardings, the civic body hopes to increase the annual earnings by more than Rs 40 lakh as the offset price for the bidding has been fixed at Rs 1.20 crores.

“The successful bidder will be granted licence for the period from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012 in the first phase. Thereafter the licence will be renewed for two subsequent financial years. However, the licence fee for the succeeding year will be 15 per cent more than the licence fee of the previous year,” the municipal commissioner said.

“It remains to be seen to what extent the CMC regulates the size of the hoardings, the distance from electric cables, location and the distance from a standing tree,” said Dillip Mohapatra, a resident of Chandini Chouk area.

On the other hand, Saumendra Mishra, a resident of Biju Patnaik Chakh area, said: “The civic body needs to ensure that the hoardings do not violate civic norms. In many instances they are placed at vantage points blocking visibility in the roads causing road accidents.”

CMC had decided to keep out of the purview of the successful bidder road dividers and footpaths on Ring road (except Sati Chaura to Bidanasi Gada), the road from Badambadi to Madhupatna and traffic posts in CMC area. For bus shelters and public toilets, CMC had entered into separate agreements under Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects with private parties, a CMC officer said.