The Hindu : Front Page : Illegal billboards at bus shelters going

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Saturday, May 03, 2008
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Illegal billboards at bus shelters going

Kannal Achuthan

Of 364 bus shelters, 82 have unauthorised billboards

A few bus shelters on Anna Salai were shorn of vinyl panels displaying advertisements

— Photo: M. Karunakaran

DRIVE INTENSIFIES: Unauthorised vinyl advertisement boards were removed from the bus stop before P.Orr and Sons on Anna Salai on Friday.

Chennai: After the removal of vinyl banners on illegal hoardings across the city, the Chennai Corporation has now trained its guns on unauthorised billboards set up at its bus shelters.

On Friday, a few bus shelters on Anna Salai were shorn of vinyl panels that displayed advertisements. The Corporation maintains 364 bus shelters, of which 82 have unauthorised billboards that are to be removed.

Some of the bus shelters that illegally carry the billboards include the Shanthi Theatre bus stop on Anna Salai, a stop on Wallajah Road, one of the shelters at the LIC bus stop and one before the P. Orr and Sons, said zonal officials.

Apart from the Corporation’s 364 bus shelters, Metropolitan Transport Corporation has about 1,000 shelters. The MTC had auctioned the advertising space on these shelters. These billboards will not be removed.

The MTC is soon to hand over 400 bus shelters to the Corporation for modernisation and maintenance. The local body had announced a multi-crore bus shelter modernisation project to be taken up on public–private partnership in its budget last year. However, the project was delayed with the hoardings case in court.

As the MTC had already auctioned advertising space on its shelters, the Corporation would take up renovation of these shelters once the agreement between the advertising firm and MTC came to an end.

The modernisation will be taken up on a DBOT (Design, Build, Operate, Transfer) basis. Advertising firm Adlabs has quoted the lowest bid and would be given the contract if approved by the Corporation Council and the State government.

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