Pune: The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) in a move to increase revenue and curb illegal hoardings has initiated the process to legalise advertisements on kiosks, signboards, underpasses and flyovers. The civic body has floated three separate tenders for the project, with an estimated annual revenue potential of Rs20 crore.“The contracts will be finalised on Sept 8 through a bidding process, and the selected contractors will be given rights to put up advertisements for a five-year period,” said Rajesh Agale, deputy municipal commissioner and head of PCMC’s skysign department.A recent survey by the skysign department identified 15,000 electric poles, 97 gantry signboards, and 80 underpasses and flyovers within the civic body limits where advertisements could be permitted. The 80 structures located on the old Pune-Mumbai highway, Aundh-Ravet BRTS Road, and the Mumbai-Bengaluru Highway have been earmarked for legal advertisements.Similarly, Chinchwad Chowk Service Road, service roads along the highways, and Pimpri Ambedkar Chowk road towards the old Pune-Mumbai highway have been selected for gantry advertisements, civic officials said.Officials admitted that no fresh tenders were floated after the previous kiosk advertising contract expired in Nov 2021, which encouraged unauthorised structures to mushroom. Currently, there are about 1,500 legal iron hoardings across Pimpri Chinchwad, while the civic body has engaged a private agency to conduct an AI-based survey to detect size violations and illegal structures.Earlier, PCMC allowed temporary flex permissions for up to seven days at 135 designated spots. However, the provision was scrapped in Dec last year following rampant misuse, forcing advertisers to rely solely on authorised hoardings.
