Chandigarh civic body eyes advertisement space on bus queue shelters

Sandeep Rana

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Chandigarh, March 27

Eying a revenue of Rs 10 crore per annum, the city municipal corporation (MC) has written to the UT Chief Architect for giving permission to display advertisements on bus queue shelters.

There are over 400 bus queue shelters in the city and all of these have a designated space for advertisements. The civic body, if given a nod for the same, would float a tender to hire an agency for the purpose. The agency will pay licence fee to the MC and display advertisements of different clients on payment basis. The MC had sought permission before the Model Code of Conduct for the Lok Sabha elections was imposed.

The bus queue shelters could be an ideal space for advertisements, but it appeared to be a long road yet, sources said, adding that the UT engineering department was yet to hand over the possession of newly-built bus queue shelters to the CTU.

After it is done, a proper plan to sell space for advertisements will be chalked out. It may be finally decided that whether the CTU or the MC will earn revenue from the advertisement space. At present, the MC is earning revenue through docking stations and unipoles. Besides, the civic body has readied its tender for offering 191 public toilet blocks for ads, eying a revenue of about Rs 40 crore in five years. The project for display of advertisements on toilet blocks has been delayed for over a year. The MC reasons it has been amending the old terms and conditions of the tender with the aim of earning more revenue.