Chennai: Activists cry foul as hoardings return – Times of India

CHENNAI: Advertisement hoardings are making a comeback in the city and its outskirts, adorning foot overbridges and medians on arterial stretches such as OMR and GST Road.
Hoardings are technically allowed in some places, but activists say they shouldn’t be allowed on road medians and along highways. “Any advertisement is to attract attention. When it is along the carriageway, it will attract the driver’s attention,” said K Kathirmathiyon, an activist who has written to the Union ministry of road transport and highways and moved the Madras high court against erecting hoardings and advertisements.
The culture of political parties erecting banners had been on a decline in Chennai since September 2019 when R Subhashree, a techie, died after an illegal hoarding erected along a median fell on her twowheeler on Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Radial Road.
Last month, an official statement from DMK MP and party organisation secretary R S Bharathi urged party functionaries not to erect banners without permission. “Party headquarters will act against anyone disobeying orders.”
While political parties do not pay the local body, advertisement hoardings bring in revenue to the local bodies and at times the authorities concerned overlook road user safety. Along OMR, huge hoardings are common on foot over-bridges, along medians and at traffic signals. Similar is the case on GST Road.
“It is unfortunate that the Tamil Nadu Road Development Company, which maintains arterial stretches like OMR, has allowed contractors to display such signboards on medians, light poles, bus stops and foot over-bridges. These signboards are in violation of TN Prevention of Public Space Disfigurement Act,” said P Sajeevan of Perungudi.
Kathirmathiyon said authorities allowing hoardings in most cases get away citing technical loopholes. “On medians and FoB, even if are permitted to erect hoardings, it does not guarantee they would not cause accidents. As a blanket rule, on medians, advertisement hoardings should not be allowed,” he said.
A GCC official said in city limits hoardings were allowed only on private lands with an NOC. “We will undertake another survey before the monsoon and issue notices to take off hoardings during heavy winds,” the official said.