Ads on public toilets: Chandigarh MC fails to cash in on project

Sandeep Rana

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 11

It seems due to “apathetic and reluctant” attitude of the Municipal Corporation, the project of advertisement on public toilets, which could have earned a revenue of Rs 25 crore in five years to the civic body, continues to hang fire and it may come a cropper.

The MC floated the tender for the project after a gap of five years. The highest bidder in tender for the 55 public toilets was found on August 18, 2020. But till today, the work is still stuck.

Civic body floated tender after five years

The MC floated the tender for the project after a gap of five years. The highest bidder in tender for the 55 public toilets was found on August 18, 2020. But till today, the work is still stuck. In what shows a lackadaisical approach of the civic body in generating revenue, of the total 55 toilets, whose tender was floated, about 15 were dismantled for renovation earlier.

In what shows a lackadaisical approach of the civic body in generating revenue, of the total 55 toilets, whose tender was floated, about 15 were dismantled for renovation earlier.

And others had a number of hindrances such as growth of herbs, tree branches or unipole site in front of the ad site. After insistence of Decode Adverting Private Limited, the highest bidder, MC Commissioner KK Yadav formed a committee to examine all hindrances to remove them.

However, without clearing those hindrances and not mentioning the reduced area on account of toilets gone for renovation, the corporation has issued a letter of intent to the company.

“This letter of intent is wrong. How can they issue this letter without removing hindrances detected in the committee. Secondly, they have not even mentioned how much total area is being offered to us,” said Rajesh Jain, MD of the agency.

“It is reluctant and indifferent attitude of the MC. It seems they do not want to give this work due to reasons best known to them,” he added.

The committee’s report, which is in possession with Chandigarh Tribune, has mentioned that some of the toilet blocks are not suitable for ads. While other toilet blocks had many hindrances found in the panel report.

Joint Commissioner Sorabh Arora said: “We have reduced the total area from 11,000 sq ft to 9,400 sq ft. The letter of intent has been issued and the hindrances will be removed.”

Leader of the Opposition in the MC House councillor Devinder Singh Babla said: “The maintenance work of over 300 public toilets has been lying pending for several years due to shortage of funds. But we prefer to beg for funds to the UT Administration while kicking away revenue coming our way.”

Another case

There is another case in which the MC did not care two hoots about getting revenue from ads on vehicles. The corporation without giving any proper reason had earlier returned cheques for Rs 72 lakh it had accepted from a private agency whom it had given permission to display advertisements on a moving vehicle. The firm had planned to start 10 such vans in about two months, which would have fetched about Rs 8-9 crore revenue to the MC.