PCMC gives nod to restart setting up hoardings across Pimpri-Chinchwad

PCMC Deputy Municipal Commissioner Sachin Dhole, head of Sky Sign and Licence Department, said on Sunday that the civic body has made a record collection of Rs 17.24 crore licence fee from those willing to put up hoardings in the financial year 2022-23. “Though the permission for new hoardings was not given in 2022-23, we still managed to make a record collection, mainly through the outstanding dues from different advertising companies,” he said.

The revenue of Sky Sign and Licence Department has surged drastically in the last five years. The department collected a revenue of Rs 3.79 crore in 2017-2018, Rs 3.98 crore in 2018-19, Rs 6.11 crore in 2019-20, which dipped to Rs 4.20 crore in 2020-21 (mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic), but jumped three times to Rs 12.66 crore in 2021-22, and Rs. 17.24 crore in 2022-23 — over five times against 2017-18, showed data.

“Our target was around Rs 9 crore the last financial year, but we managed to collect Rs 17.24 crore, which was much more than our expectations. The last financial year, no new hoardings were permitted to be put up. As dues for the existing ones were pending for a long time, we had launched a campaign against such companies and collected the same this financial year,” said Dhole, adding that new hoardings will now be allowed across the city. “Ten months ago, the then municipal commissioner had stopped giving permission to new hoardings due to different reasons, with the pending matter at court. But now, the incumbent Municipal Commissioner, Shekhar Singh, has given green signal for setting up new hoardings across the city,” Dhole added. Cases relating to over 400 hoardings have been pending in the court, and PCMC expects to collect Rs 9 crore dues from the same.

According to the PCMC administration, 40-feet by 30-feet hoardings could be set up on roads, against the 40-feet by 20-feet in the past. “The roads have been marked in different categories such as R1, R2, R3 and R4. Prime roads including Pune-Mumbai Highway fall in the R1 category, with higher rates against roads in the R3 and R4 zones (in remote areas of the city). All the hoardings are related to advertising companies,” Dhole said.

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The PCMC administration said that it will implement a tender process for putting up hoardings along key roads such BRTS roads, Metro pillars, public toilets, and 50 other  PCMC sites. Permission needs to be taken from the respective eight zonal offices online for birthday-related hoardings, said the PCMC administration. “People who want to put up hoardings related to birthdays for a couple of days or more should visit the PCMC website and zonal offices. They would have to select from 20 sites where they intend to put up their hoardings, pay online, and then paste the challan on their hoardings,” Dhole said.