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War for advertising space in capital

— Photo: Lingaraj Panda

Look here, look here!: The hoardings put up in the capital city.

BHUBANESWAR: At a time when convincing consumers with propaganda blitz has become an important strategy of any trade, the capital city has not escaped from the maddening competition of putting up advertising hoardings affecting its ‘soothing look.’

With the State Government moving on fast industrial growth, companies aspiring to set up projects in the State have flooded the city’s landscape with big hoardings.

Visitors who come out of Biju Patnaik Airport will surely bump into hoardings lined up by companies pledging their social commitments to people of the State.

Similarly, a person who reaches city by train would find himself in jungle of advertisement hoardings before detecting city’s important building as well as important route information.

Of late, the newly-laid road stretch from the airport to Infocity has become a glaring example of war for securing advertising space.

"These hoardings destroy the beautiful skyline of the city. With hoardings occupying every conceivable space, drivers get distracted by these while driving past important crossroads of the city," Nalin K Panda, President of Citzen’s Apex Association, said.

He said the civic body should streamline the process of putting up hoardings by identifying proper place.

Moreover, many rusted iron framed hoarding could be found in the city and those had not been inspected by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC).

As per the policy, the huge billboards should be placed at a safer distance from important junction so that safety of commuters was ensured. But at the Master Canteen Square, the huge billboards have been put up right on the roadside. Even housetop hoardings, which are prohibited in residential areas, have come up in localities such as Acharya Vihar, Sahid Nagar, Ashok Nagar and Kharavela Nagar.

Even private business establishments have on their own put up billboards without consultation with the civic body.

While BMC is finding it tough to meet its collection target from the hoardings, it has failed to monitor safety as well as hoardings in residential areas.

Commissioner of BMC Aparajita Sarangi said the tax collected from advertisement hoardings constituted an important segment of BMC’s revenue generation. "We have already handed over advertisement rights to private agencies. We have not received any complaint on either safety aspect or hoardings blocking view," Ms. Sarangi said.

On the other hand, she said the BMC was introducing more designed hoardings to bring out aesthetic look of the city.

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