MCG pulls down over 650 illegal ad structures over 4 months

MCG officials said they have taken a strong view of such illegal hoardings, including unipoles, wall wraps and banners, and will pull down each and every illegal publicity material in the city

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has removed over 650 illegal hoardings, unipoles, banners and other advertisement structures across the city in the past four months, said officials aware of the matter on Monday.

An illegal hoarding being razed in Gurugram on Monday. (HT Photo)

MCG officials said they have taken a strong view of such illegal hoardings, including unipoles, wall wraps and banners, and will pull down each and every illegal publicity material in the city.

Over the past four months, the civic body has removed at least 500 large sized hoardings defacing public properties and have registered 21 cases. Strict action was taken and ₹1.19 crore in fines was collected from violators, said officials.

But MCG commissioner PC Meena is still not satisfied with the action taken by the enforcement team.

Meena held a meeting with officials of the enforcement wing on Monday and directed them to remove all illegal advertisements along the roads at the earliest.

The municipal commissioner said he is not satisfied with the way the enforcement wing has been dealing with illegal advertisements over the past four months despite the directions issued by him. “I have asked officials to ensure not a single advertisement that is not following norms is left on the road,” he said.

According to MCG officials, wall wraps around 10 buildings along the highway and 69 unipoles displaying advertisements illegally were removed. Officials said they had prepared a list of all such illegal structures across the city and a majority of them were on Sohna Road, Golf Course Extension Road, Southern Peripheral Road and the National Highway-48.

Meena said they have decided to impose a penalty on both the land owner and the advertiser company for each illegal advertisement structure. “We have taken action and removed 69 illegal unipoles between January and April. We have registered 21 cases against the installation of illegal unipoles. We have recovered fines totalling ₹1.19 crore from violators,” he said.

Officials said under the Haryana Municipal Advertisement By-laws, 2022, it is mandatory to obtain permission from the civic agency before installing any unipole or displaying advertisements within the jurisdictional limits of MCG. For this, the prescribed fee is paid by first applying for permission online.

Meena said displaying advertisements without permission is a punishable offence and action will be taken against offenders. “Before displaying advertisement on unipole or boards, the owner and agency need to obtain necessary permission from the agency concerned,” he said.

Unipoles were removed from Dwarka Expressway, Southern Peripheral Road (SPR), Golf Course Road, Golf Course Extension Road, and Sohna Road, said civic officials.

As per norms, each billboard must be 30x15 inch on a 15 foot pole and at least three metres away from the road. They should not be close to road curves or near traffic signals. The advertisements should not be reflective and must not have electricity backup.