Quest Mall removed all remaining billboard frames in front of its building by Wednesday morning, saying they were not for commercial use but to prevent debris from falling onto the road during ongoing repairs.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had pulled down 16 hoardings outside the mall between Monday night and Tuesday morning, declaring them unauthorised. Five more remained, which the mall authorities removed themselves.

When KMC officials revisited the site on Wednesday, all frames had also been taken down.

Sanjeev Mehra, CEO and executive director of Quest Properties India Limited,
told Metro: “We have removed the remaining frames. We reiterate that these were not commercials or hoardings but signboards of brands that have stores in the mall. They also served as protection against debris being generated during the renovation.”

He added: “There are concrete and tiled floors that will be broken. The boards would have prevented splinters from going towards the pavement and the road.”

Due to the ongoing renovation, some store names are hidden behind dust curtains and other barriers. According to Mehra, the boards pulled down displayed the names of these stores.

KMC sources said even if the boards were intended as signboards, Quest Mall violated rules by not taking permission from the civic body.

“The rules say that signboards up to 30 sq ft in size are exempt from taking permission from the KMC. Any store putting up larger signage needs to seek permission and pay the requisite fee,” a KMC official said.

Sources said the hoardings at Quest were much larger. Sixteen were around 400 sq ft each, four were about 450 sq ft, and one measured 240 sq ft.

On Monday night, an 18-member KMC team went to the mall to remove the hoardings, working through the night and early Tuesday morning. The team was equipped with gas cutters and other tools to carry out the demolition.

The KMC wrote to Quest on Tuesday, demanding ₹24,000 to cover the cost of removing the boards. “Had the mall authorities acted on our letters to remove the hoardings, the situation would not have come to this,” a KMC official said.

Before this, the civic body also placed a demand of ₹51 lakh as a penalty.

A KMC official told Metro on Wednesday that a team had checked the site again and confirmed that all hoardings had been removed.

Quest is currently undergoing renovation, with changes planned for both the facade and interiors, sources said. The renovation of the facade began in December and is expected to take about a year-and-a-half to complete.

Opened in October 2013, Quest Mall houses over 100 brands, including many high-end labels.