Bhubaneswar Civic Body To Pull Down Illegal Rooftop Hoardings, Impose Penalty On Owners, Agencies

Bhubaneswar: Acting tough against illegal hoardings, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has engaged an agency to remove those from all building rooftops in the Odisha capital.

According to sources, the BMC has been losing huge revenue with house owners and private agencies allegedly indulging in such illegality by bribing some officials of the civic body. These also pose a danger to life and property of people in the neighbourhood.

Iron-framed rooftop hoardings, which are in precarious condition, will now be identified and removed on a priority basis. Accordingly, penalty amounts will be imposed on the house owners and agencies. “Bhubaneswar is a cyclone prone zone. Hoardings have been put on rooftops of buildings, which may pose danger to life and property in case of cyclones. We had served notices to the people who have put up such hoardings. Now action will be taken,” said BMC Commissioner Vijay Amruta Kulange.

The advertising agencies are required to register themselves with the BMC and can fix hoardings only at the places approved by the civic body after paying certain amounts. “The agencies will take permission from the BMC while officials will examine the rooftops and their capacity to bear loads of hoardings,” he added.

In September last year, the BMC had served notices to many house owners and private agencies for putting up iron-framed big hoardings on rooftops. But no action was initiated against them then. It had also plan to act against disorderly installation of hoardings, billboards and other advertisement materials to improve the capital’s look.

In 2018, the BMC had decided not to allow hoardings along 40-km Cuttack Road, Janpath, Sachivalay Marg and Bidyut Marg and formed an enforcement team to remove hoardings. Besides, a decision to fix GPS on the hoardings to stop such practices. But this plan was not carried out.