SMC to raise revenue by Rs 100 crore in 2018-19

Surat: Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has set an ambitious target of increasing its revenue by Rs 100 crore for the year 2018-19 by adding new places of advertisements saving expenditure by letting some facilities to private partners.
Despite having 326 sq km area and more than 2,500 km of road network, SMC’s advertisement income, including hoardings and other billboards, amounts to just Rs 10 crore per year. Similarly, the civic body earns a little less than Rs 10 crore from its 40 pay-and-park slots across the city.

A senior official of SMC said, “Recently our internal survey showed that there were as many number of illegal hoardings as legal ones. So, with the use of modern technology we have decided to crack down on illegal hoardings and other forms of advertisement.”

Similarly, SMC also plans to set up number of advertisement kiosks, at foot overbridges, city and BRT buses, bus stops and pick up stands.

The civic body officials feel that checking on illegal hoardings and other forms of illegal advertisements would help double advertisement revenue and add new spots for putting up advertisements in next financial year.

Apart from parking slots of SMC, under its new parking policy, the civic body plans to set up new parking space in city by regularizing parking on main roads by charging for parking.

“Large number of people still park their vehicles on road side without paying. Once we start charging them, income will start flowing. We also plan to issue monthly and yearly parking permits,” an official from SMC traffic department said.

“However, exact income could be known only after the number of parking spots and rates are fixed. We expect additional Rs 40-50 crore revenue if rules are implemented properly,” he added.

Surat has nearly 172 gardens and if half of them are also given on public private partnership basis to operate and maintain, it would save local body of Rs 8 to 10 crore on annual basis, an SMC official said. Model roads in various zones could also come up under PPP model and save SMC at least Rs 50 crore.

SMC commissioner M Thennarasan said, “Revenue could be maximised if leakages and loopholes are plugged.”