Determined to make the city banner-free in the next three months, officials from the licences department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plan to chalk out a strategy with its group leaders next week.

Rajendra Bhosale, deputy municipal commissioner (special), said, "Almost 80% of the banners in the city belong to political parties. So, we plan to meet the group leaders to come up with a strategy to create awareness about removing the banners. We hope to make the city banner-free in the next three months."

In his budget speech on Monday, municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte had said that there is a need to control and regulate the mushrooming growth of advertisement hoardings and banners in the city.

"Uneven and haphazard advertisement hoardings and banners in every nook and corner of the city are hampering its aesthetic aspects. As a first step towards making the city banner-free, hereafter, no banner of any kind will be permitted to be installed at any place in the city, barring some exceptions," Kunte had said.

He had also promised to make some parts of the city, especially the heritage structures, eventually hoarding-free.

While the civic body will not grant permissions for new hoardings, the licences of the existing ones will not be renewed. V Ranganathan, chairperson, Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee, said, "Based on a Bombay high court order, we have decided to ban hoardings at heritage structures. We will only allow signages to be put up, provided they don't hamper its architectural value."