Want to advertise in Chennai? Adopt public space

CHENNAI: With no permission being granted for hoardings and banners within corporation limits, the way forward for firms looking to advertise is to adopt public spaces like traffic islands, centre medians or roadside parks. The firms will get one-third of the advertising space on the name boards while the rest of the space would be with the city corporation. 

“This will be a win-win situation for both parties. We are looking for people to adopt city spaces and firms are looking to advertise in high-traffic areas,” said a senior city corporation official. According to corporation officials, no permission has been granted for placing advertising banners or hoardings in the city for the last six years.

“Any hoarding or banner that you may see is illegal. The city corporation has not been issuing permission for them,” said a corporation’s revenue department official. In December last year, the corporation’s district revenue official instructed executive engineers and assistant executive engineers in all 15 zones of the corporation to immediately remove the hoardings and submit a report. The letter also instructed officials to penalise or register an FIR against the owners.

While more firms are coming forward to adopt city spaces, the corporation is also conducting regular checks to see if the spaces are being maintained. The civic body recently removed the name of a leading telecom company from a name board in Greenways road after it came to light that they failed to maintain the space as per instructions.

Out of the 722 corporation parks, 102 centre medians, 112 traffic islands and 166 roadside parks maintained by the corporation; 84 OSR parks, 32 centre medians and two roadside parks have been adopted. 

As part of Singara Chennai, the corporation undertook greening projects across the city. The corporation has introduced plants in centre medians wherever possible and on concrete and flat medians, the civic body has introduced potted plants.