PWD to remove illegal ads from South Karnataka’s state highways and district main roads

On May 29, after a series of complaints came from the public, the public works department in the city of Bengaluru began a drive to eradicate illegal advertisements from state highways and district main roads in the South of Karnataka.

The drive will see the removal of illegal advertisements from Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Mysuru, Ramanagara, Kodagu, Shivamogga districts among others coming under PWD’s south zone, as explained by a Times of India report.

Since the time Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) initiated actions by banning the display of advertisements and their hoardings in the city of Bengaluru, as stated in the report, outdoor advertisers began to focus on roads near Bengaluru.

PWD received numerous complaints that highlighted their plight stating that illegal advertisements caused accidents and were problematic in nature.

Since the time a big illegal billboard–due to wind storms and unseasonal rains–injured and led to the death of casualties, there has been a nationwide drive to put a stop to the rise of illegal hoardings and remove the existing ones.

Right from Pune, Kolhapur, Chennai and Raipur, the civic bodies of these respective states took steps to put a stop to the rise of illegal hoardings.

On May 23, the BMC brought together a panel of eight members including experts from the Indian Institution of Technology, Bombay to form detailed and relevant guidelines and rules with respect to billboards and other forms of outdoor advertising in Mumbai, as per reports.

The new committee will address environmental and health issues and traffic safety implications of granting permissions of digital hoardings, the notification added.

Read More: Railways and GRP permitted 306 hoardings, 45 of which oversized: BMC report