'City to be rid of illegal hoardings in 2 weeks'

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has kick-started its campaign to rid the city of illegal hoardings. The civic body has begun dismantling the hoarding structures which do not hold the advertisements or banners any longer.

According to the BBMP Commissioner, N Manjunath Prasad, they have removed at least 100 gantries so far and the remaining 500 are expected to be dismantled in the next two weeks in all the eight BBMP zones.

On August 14, the BBMP had issued a public notice asking the concerned agencies to bring down the metal structures which hold the hoardings by August 30. Failing which the civic body would dismantle them and recover the cost from the owners and agencies of the hoarding. The civic body then pushed the deadline to September 6 and warned the agencies of legal action.

The BBMP had filed 759 FIRs against the hoardings' owners who didn't remove them within the stipulated deadline. The civic body had served 1,848 final notices. However, 271 owners have obtained a stay order from the court against the notice.