6,400 hoardings to dot Bengaluru as BBMP gears up for ad auction

Bengaluru: At least 6,404 hoardings are likely to dot Bengaluru’s arterial and sub-arterial roads in just a couple of months, raising concerns over the return of visual pollution.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has set in motion the process of auctioning the advertisement rights for 10 years across eight zones, taking advantage of the Karnataka government's new advertisement policy that lifted a seven-year-long ban on hoardings.

The move is estimated to generate an annual revenue of Rs 514 cr, as the civic body looks to generate more cash flow. In all, the outdoor advertisement boards will be allowed on 611 roads totalling about 1,000 km.

The advertiser who quotes the highest will get the permission to erect hoardings every 200 metres in a stretch. The BBMP has earmarked a total of 51.22 lakh square feet of advertisement space across the city. The maximum size of a hoarding permitted will be 40x20 square feet. 

On Friday, the BBMP, which is in a transition period, floated the tenders seeking bids from advertising firms. Going by its plan, the civic body wants to select just one advertiser in each of the eight zones, meaning the private firm will have nearly complete monopoly over placing advertisements in the respective zone. 

As per BBMP’s estimates, it hopes to generate the highest monthly revenue from the east zone (Rs 10.11 crore), followed by Mahadevapura (Rs 8.73 cr) and South (Rs 6.31 cr). The least will come from Dasarahalli (Rs 1.75 cr). 

On the bright side, the BBMP has set a condition that no boards or advertising poles be installed on public roads and footpaths. The advertiser is expected to create space on private properties by entering into agreements with the property owners.

It has mentioned that hoardings will not be allowed on roads less than 60 feet in residential areas but the cap remains as low as 20 feet in both commercial and industrial areas. 

While the civic body has been generous with the number of hoardings on each road, there is concern that it may also lead to unauthorised felling of trees. 

Other than the 6,404 hoardings that the new policy allows, the BBMP has earlier issued permissions to put up advertisement boards for 20 years in return for building bus shelters and skywalks in different parts of the city.

Advertising rights have also been issued for the maintenance of toilets and underpasses in some places. But these initiatives do not fetch much revenue for the civic body. 

BBMP’s special commissioner Munish Moudgil said the advertisement rights and revenue would be transferred to the newly carved corporations once the BBMP ceases to exist.