BCC drafts rules to rid city of visual pollution

BCC drafts rules to rid city of visual pollution
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: In an attempt to curb the rampant violations by advertisers and evasion of tax, Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) has revised its outdoor advertisement rules. The revised rules has options for no-ad zones, allots hoarding heights to each area as per vehicular traffic and bans posters.

The draft rules, awaiting government approval, seeks to keep VIP areas – Kumara Krupa Road, Rajbhavan Road, Ambedkar Veedhi, Post Office Road, Chalukya Circle, Maharani College Road, K R Circle, Nrupatunga Road, Palace Road, Cubbon Park and Lal Bagh environs – free from any advertisement display. No advertisements would be allowed in BCC parks and play grounds either.

The rest of the city is classified into zone A, B, C and D. The maximum height of hoarding is restricted in each zone depending on the intensity of traffic. For instance, the maximum height of hoarding in zone B would be 30 feet and 40 feet in zone C. The billboards on rooftops will be 40 feet and 50 feet respectively. However, there will be no height restrictions in zone D. BCC would account for the hoardings licensed by other agencies like Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited by asking them to submit a list of hoardings inside their premises and on their buses.

The commercial establishments carrying display other than their ownadvertisements will be taxed.

Similarly, ad slides on cinema screens and cable TV scrolls are taxable and cinema owners would have to register as advertising agencies with BCC. No posters will be permitted.

The president of Outdoor Advertising Association, S.M. Jawad demanded that the BCC advertisement bye-laws which were framed in 1956, be revised. He also said that the association had conducted a video survey of the hoardings in the city in 2004 and recorded 1,600 hoardings in the city including the ones in the premises of government agencies. He denied there were 10,000 unauthorised hoardings.