New advertisement policy in pipeline for Noida

To earn more revenue, the Noida authority has drafted a new advertisement policy to regulate outdoor advertising media across the city. The move is to check illegal

To earn more revenue, the Noida authority has drafted a new advertisement policy to regulate outdoor advertising media across the city. The move is to check illegal advertising, which causes loss of revenue to the authority. This policy will be introduced in upcoming board meeting, on January 31, for approval.

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“We have prepared an advertisement policy which will be discussed in an upcoming board meeting. Once it is approved, we will implement it to earn more revenue by selling advertisement rights,” said Noida authority chief executive officer Ritu Maheshwari.

The policy details guidelines on who will be eligible for getting a licence for advertising outdoors and penalty for putting up billboards illegally or illegal outdoor advertising, among other aspects, officials said, adding that in the absence of an advertisement policy, the authority faces difficulty in addressing issues that come up while giving rights to vendors.

Till now, the city has been divided into three different categories based on which a fee is charged for outdoor advertising.

In April, 2018, the authority finalised monthly charges of ₹262.36/sqft for areas under Category A, ₹240.49/sqft for Category B and ₹218.63/sqft in Category C. Before the category system, the authority used to charge different rates for wall wraps, hoardings and unipoles.

“In the absence of an ad policy we cannot take decisions on many legal issues. The policy will shed clarity on rates, prime locations and help us increase revenue,” said a Noida authority official not authorised to speak to the media.

In 2017, the authority had fixed a target to collect around ₹100 crore annual revenue from outdoor advertising. But the authority only collected ₹18 crore in the financial year 2019-2020. And in the financial year it had collected ₹14 crore in 2017-18 financial year, officials said.