Illegal hoardings come up near KIA despite HC order

The posters and flex banners that vanished from the city after the high court order have began reappearing around the Kempegowda International Airport.

The area around airport has become an eyesore with hoarding and posters dominating the alternative road to KIA despite clear instructions from the high court that the ban would apply to the outskirts and areas falling under Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority.

Hoarding companies have approached villagers and offered them Rs 70,000 to Rs 1 lakh to put up a 100 X 100 feet hoarding on their land. Several hoardings have come up on either side of the alternative road that starts at the entry point to KIA.

Doddajala Panchayath Development officer (PDO) Gangaram confirmed to DH that all the hoardings are illegal since they issued no fresh licenses to erect them or renewed old licenses of the companies.

“We’ve removed several hoardings and seized Rs 20 lakh worth materials. Despite the close vigil, the hoardings have come up overnight. We’ll remove them,” he said.

In its October 1 order, the high court had said the ban on posters, banners and flexes would apply to the neighbourhoods in the city outskirts coming under Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority.

During the hearing on September 17, Advocate General Udaya Holla told the court that the departments concerned would take steps to adopt the model bye-laws with necessary provisions to deal with advertisements/hoardings in the local bodies in BMRDA area, other than BBMP.

The total length of the alternative road is 1.3 kilometre, 900 metres of which is inside the airport perimeters as the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) has made constructions. The public works department has constructed the road on the remaining 400 metres till the Bandikodigehalli Road.

The illegal hoardings tower over the stretch of road built by the PWD. Some of them have been put up in the private land adjacent to KIA.

The PWD has only built a two-lane road without the pooh path. Cabs have occupied the road on either side. The small filter hoardings on the road prove to be a major distraction for the riders. Several restaurants operate on the stretch of the road, further worsening the condition.

Kempanna, a retired school teacher living in Mylanahalli adjacent to KIA, said the hoarding companies approached the villagers in Mylanahalli, Begur, Shettigere and other places near the alternative road following the ban on hoardings in the city.

He also said the companies offered Rs 70,000 to Rs 1,00,000 to erect the hoardings in their land. “This’s huge money for villagers since the pillars for the hoardings will only occupy 3x3 area. But the companies kept the villagers in the dark about the high court order,” he said.

Anneshwara Grama Panchayath PDO Shashidhar said no new hoardings have been allowed while work is on to remove the advertisements. He said the panchayat would soon begin to dismantle the structures.