The Hindu : Front Page : Beautification or avenue for ad?

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Thursday, Aug 21, 2008
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Beautification or avenue for ad?

Afshan Yasmeen and Deepika Arwind

Portable plastic pillars with ad space pop up on pavements on M.G. Road

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

A HINDRANCE: Cheap fibre pillars have been installed on the pavement of Residency Road posing a hurdle to the pedestrians.

Bangalore: Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa may have instructed the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) not to issue fresh permits for putting up advertisements in any form, hoardings included, or renew existing permits until further orders.

But the palike is busy making discreet arrangements for a backdoor entry for advertisements in the name of “beautification” projects. And this time the visual pollution is sure to affect pedestrian movement, apart from distracting motorists not to mention distressing the aesthete.

On pavements

Pedestrians and motorists on stretches of Mahatma Gandhi Road and Residency Road on Wednesday were greeted by a row of terracotta-coloured pillars on the pavements. A few pedestrians bumped their head on the overhanging ad space. The pillars were crowned by some flowerpots to boot.

Terracotta they were not. Instead, the bulbous pillars were made of plastic and placed at random intervals anywhere between 10 and 40 feet. Sporting even burnt clay streaks, they stood occupying already shrinking pavements.

The overhanging advertisement board on each is suspended some six feet above the ground. The advertisement space on a few has been picked up by a popular textile company.

Awkward structures

These shaky, awkward, pillar-like structures, meant to “beautify” the city, are forcing pedestrians to duck out of the way to avoid bumping against the frames.

Pilot project

Although BBMP officials said the pillars were part of a pilot project to beautify the city, pedestrians and concerned citizens were not amused. Some of them have even complained to the jurisdictional officials, a BBMP official who did not want to be named, told The Hindu.

BBMP Assistant Revenue Officer (Advertisements - East) B.N. Jagadish, by way of explanation, said, “The pilot project could have been sanctioned prior to the Chief Minister’s direction banning advertisements in the city.”

But sources in the palike said the project was conceived to help outdoor advertisement agencies, who have been the worst affected by the ban on hoardings, gain a backdoor entry.

The palike invited tenders for this pilot project recently, they said.

Quipped another BBMP source, “We do not know whether this project is meant to beautify the city or make it uglier. Or is it a drishti bottu on Bangalore’s international image?”

The ban on hoardings has come after several unsuccessful attempts by the BBMP to check visual pollution and illegal hoardings.

Year after year, the palike budgets routinely propose a ban on hoardings only to rescind it following pressure from the advertisement lobby.

During the tenure of K. Jairaj as Commissioner, the palike had adopted new advertisement bylaws laying down hoarding specifications, location, pricing slab and height restrictions.

While some roads, including Mahatma Gandhi Road, Brigade Road, Residency Road, Raj Bhavan Road and Vidhana Veedhi were proposed to be made “hoarding-free zones”, hoardings were to be strictly banned in the setback area of buildings.

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