A first — Passages for advertising

Tribune News Service

Advertisement

Chandigarh, August 20

The cash-strapped Municipal Corporation has proposed to auction 357 public utilities and connecting passages in various markets and green belts for advertising on the designated spaces.

The sites have been divided into four categories — A, B, C and D — with respective reserve prices. A list of the sites and corresponding reserve prices has been prepared for the e-auction of advertisement rights for display of advertisements in “multi-lot” through LED backlit/digital screen.

This is the first time the MC will be offering connecting passages for advertising in Chandigarh that has been sensitive with heritage norms. The corporation has finished renovating connecting passages in the Sector 17 Plaza and the work is underway in the Sector 22 market.

Also, this is the first time that the civic body is offering the largest number of public toilets for advertising. These spaces have been lying vacant since the advertising agency awarded the project of using designated advertisement spots at 55 public toilet blocks gave up two years ago.

Decode Adverting Private Limited had been awarded the project for five years, under which the MC was to be paid Rs 28 crore. However, the agency quit the project in 2022, pointing out a number of hindrances such as overgrown shrubs around the blocks and failure of the MC to remove tree branches or unipoles that block the view to ad spots despite repeated requests.

The civic body had maintained the utilities had to be taken on an ‘as is, where is’ basis.

The corporation has now amended the terms and conditions of the tender with the aim of earning more revenue. The agenda will be placed before the General House on Wednesday to seek approval for the proposed reserve prices and the tender for “Multi-Lot E-Auction”.