An outdoor advertising agency has offered to pay ₹16.38 crore a year to manage hoardings in the Park Street-Camac Street-Shakespeare Sarani zone after the Kolkata Municipal Corporation put up advertisement rights there for e-auction.

Signpost India Limited, a Mumbai-headquartered company that emerged as the highest bidder, will have the right to remove all existing hoardings on these roads and replace them with new ones.

One of the stated objectives is to declutter the three roads — arguably Calcutta’s most high-visibility commercial stretches — by reducing the total space occupied by hoardings. “There are 33,000 sq ft of hoardings on these streets now. It will be reduced to 18,000 sq ft,” a KMC official said.

Civic sources said this is the first time the corporation has offered advertisement management rights for a city stretch through an e-auction.

The auction was completed last year, and the KMC is finalising the agreement with the company. A work order will be issued once the agreement is signed.

“We had multiple objectives. We wanted to change the face of the streets by replacing the rickety, scrappy hoardings with well-designed structures that offer a facelift. We also knew that the civic body would earn significantly more revenue through an e-auction instead of an e-tender,” a KMC official said.

Park Street, Camac Street and Shakespeare Sarani house some of the city’s most visited restaurants, pubs, retail outlets, educational institutions and corporate offices, and feature several examples of the former national capital’s colonial architecture.

Under the e-auction format, participants can see competing bids in real time and outbid one another. “It allows the KMC to maximise revenue from those seeking advertising rights,” an official said.

The KMC earlier earned around ₹5 crore annually from hoardings on these three roads. Following the auction, annual revenue is expected to exceed ₹16 crore.

“The selected company will be allowed to install LED panels or static hoardings. They will have to pay additional money if they use more LED panels,” an official said.

A state government official said the company manages outdoor advertising in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, and also handles advertisements at the Calcutta airport.

The new installations will include single-pole hoardings; dual-pole structures will not be permitted.

According to e-auction rules, the bidder quoting the highest price was chosen, a KMC official said. The rules also state that the selected company’s annual payment to the KMC will increase by 5% every three years.

Veterans in the city’s outdoor advertising sector said the industry landscape was changing rapidly, with larger national players expanding their presence. “Homegrown smaller players are finding it difficult to compete,” a veteran in the sector said.

Others said increased competition could spur innovation and bring better regulation to the outdoor advertising space. The move may also provide the city relief from near-collapsing, poorly maintained iron scaffolding that currently dots these stretches.