The Kolkata Municipal Corporation pulled down several hoardings at Quest Mall on Monday night following the mall authorities’ alleged inaction in removing the structures despite several letters from the civic body.

On Tuesday, mayoral council member Debashis Kumar stated that the hoardings were “illegal” and put up without the civic body’s permission.

Three letters, requesting the mall authorities to remove the hoarding, had been sent in the last fortnight. However, nothing was done, an official of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said.

Kumar said the Quest Mall authorities did not even respond to the letters, a charge the mall authorities denied.

“We have pulled down the illegal hoardings put up by Quest Mall. We had sent three letters, asking the mall authorities to remove the hoardings, but those were ignored. They did not respond to the letters, too,” Kumar, who heads KMC’s advertisement department, said.

A KMC official stated that 21 illegal hoardings had been set up. “We pulled down 16 hoardings through Monday night and early on Tuesday. We will pull down the remaining ones later if they do not remove them on their own,” said the official.

“Along with our letter we also presented a demand for penalty. They did not pay the penalty amount, too,” said the official. He said the penalty amount is ₹51 lakh.

KMC officials said the structures were erected in a manner that they were “projecting outwards above the pavement” from the wall of the mall. The piers of the hoardings were attached to the boundary wall of the mall, but facing the pavement, said the official.

An official of the Quest Mall dismissed the claim that they did not respond to the letters from KMC. He indicated that the mall had also elaborated in the letters addressed to KMC that these were not hoardings, but store names that needed to be placed facing the road and pavement, as substantial renovation work is currently being conducted at the mall.

“We did respond to KMC after we received their letters,” Sanjeev Mehra, the chief executive officer and executive director of Quest Properties India Limited, told Metro on Tuesday evening.

“These are not advertisements. As we are currently undergoing a significant renovation of the mall, these boards have been installed to conceal the renovation activities. Their purpose is to serve as safety measures and barriers to prevent dust generated by the renovation work,” Mehra said.

While the boards remained white for several days, the names of brands that have stores in the mall were displayed later.

“The boards were used to put the names of stores. They are signboards and in no way commercials,” Mehra added.

He said the renovation of the mall facade started around December and would take over a year and a half to complete.

The KMC deployed an 18-member team equipped with gas cutters and various tools to execute the demolition work, said a civic official.

“We dismantled the piers to ensure the hoardings fell. Subsequently, we needed to cut them into smaller sections. If we hadn’t, the road and pavement would have been obstructed. We did not seize any materials and returned all demolished items to the officials of Quest Mall,” said the official.

According to mayor Firhad Hakim’s address concerning KMC’s 2026-27 budget, the civic body dismantled 63 permanent hoardings and numerous temporary advertisements in Calcutta between last April and September.

The budget was presented on Friday and adopted on Tuesday.