COIMBATORE: It’s not stunning art works that adorn the city flyovers and compound walls. In fact, these public spaces are marred by illegal hoardings and posters.City roads and flyovers, be it Kavundampalayam flyover, Mettupalayam Road, Singanallur and Sundarapuram, are dotted with hoardings without a licence number, while compound walls of city corporation’s open ground at RS Puram and corporation ward office at Coimbatore North Junction are marred by posters. The condition of compound walls of other public properties isn’t any different.While the city corporation has long been carrying out drives against illegal hoardings and posters, Coimbatore has never been free of the same. Instead, after every drive, the city has been recording a spike in such unauthorized hoardings and posters.To address the issue, the city corporation is now gearing up to release an exclusive set of standard operating procedures (SOP) for both wall posters and hoardings.Corporation commissioner Katta Ravi Teja says they are planning to issue QR codes to registered firms and introduce Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tagging for all approved hoardings. “This system will be linked to the corporation website to support transparent advertisement bookings and help monitor unauthorized hoardings.”For wall posters, the corporation proposes to earmark specific locations within the city. “We have identified nearly 90 locations across the five zones for this purpose. SOP is ready and awaiting approval from the council. We recently convened a meeting with the members of the hoarding association, as well as posters for opinion. Another meeting will be scheduled to inform them about SOP.”While welcoming the move, social activist K Kathirmathiyon says all hoardings should undergo strict scrutiny, and only those with a valid licence must be granted QR and GIS tagging. “Corporation should not stop with just SOP, but it should ensure effective execution. This enforcement should be mainly communicated to political parties. The city corporation should convene an all-party meeting.”He says the city corporation should also abide by the rules that no local body is authorized to grant permission for the hoardings along any state or national highways, including advertisements at bus stops on these roads.M Devendran, secretary, Coimbatore District Road Safety Association, points out that advertisements along Mettupalayam Road have become a threat to the lives of motorists. “Some educational institutions and hospitals along Mettupalayam Road have placed their advertisements with flashy LED lights that obstruct the vision of motorists at night, which sometimes leads to accidents. These boards should also be controlled. Similarly, private ads dominate the barricades placed on the roads and near U-turns. This also needs to be regularized.”
