Chandigarh civic body gets Rs 28 crore for advertisement on public toilets

CHANDIGARH: With the selection of successful bidder against the tender for placing advertisements at public toilets located across the city, the Chandigarh municipal corporation has finally completed an exercise initiated nearly seven year back. The corporation has received a handsome amount of Rs 28.58 crore for using the limited space of 55 toilet blocks for advertisement over the next five years.
Since the majority of these toilet blocks are located in key commercial areas in the city, they fetched over three times more revenue than the reserve price fixed by the civic body. While it had fixed the reserve price of Rs 1,000 per sq.ft/annum, the best bid quoted Rs 3,650 per sq.ft. Of the five bidders, the company offering the highest price has been selected.
“The figure of 28.58 is excluding the 18% GST, which works out to another over Rs 5 crore. The selected company will be allowed to put up advertisements after completing the necessary formalities over the next couple of weeks,” an official said.
In addition to the said amount, there will also be a hike of 10% in annual licence fee and 5% in annual advertisement fee every year, which the company will be paying separately.
Before selecting these 55 toilet blocks, the civic body had conducted a survey to ascertain their advertisement rates. Majority of these toilet blocks are located in markets, tourist areas and other key commercial areas of the city.
Municipal commissioner K K Yadav has said, “We are committed to maintaining the public toilets of the city with best facilities. The money received through advertisement will be utilised on upgradation and maintenance of these toilets”