Questions arose as Ludhiana MC auctions NHAI’s Elevated Road pillars for ads sans nod

Tribune News Service

Harshraj Singh

Ludhiana, April 29

Questions have arisen as the Municipal Corporation (MC) included pillars of the Elevated Road on Ferozepur Road in the city, constructed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), for auction to display advertisements on them under the advertisement project tender. However, the NHAI has not yet granted permission for the same.

As per information, the MC floated tenders with a reserved price of Rs 6.25 crore for the auction of a number of outdoor media devices. As many as 280 units of Elevated Road pillars on Ferozepur Road and the Pakhowal Road ROB were included in the project, constituting 38.70 per cent of the total reserved price.

Expressing concerns about the tendering process, city-based RTI activist Kuldeep Singh Khaira lodged a complaint with the regional office of the NHAI, questioning the corporation’s action to include the Elevated Road (Ferozepur Road) pillars in the tender for advertisements. In his complaint, Khaira said Elevated Road was being constructed by the NHAI and the MC action was in alleged violation of statutory provisions of law, especially the letter dated September 7, 2016, which prohibits advertisements on national highways. “There is a need to investigate how the MC could float tenders to auction the advertisement rights on these pillars constructed by the NHAI. Concrete action is solicited at the level of the NHAI,” Khaira said.

To generate income of around Rs 27 crore annually, the MC had auctioned many advertisement sites to a private firm around five years ago. However, the firm later surrendered a number of sites during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thereafter, the MC was expecting to generate only around Rs 12 crore in a year.

The MC had then planned to auction the surrendered sites at a cost of Rs 11-12 crore but the estimated cost was later reduced. Sources said the Elevated Road pillars on Ferozepur Road were not part of those sites surrendered by the firm, as Elevated Road was under construction by the NHAI at that time. Sources said the firm earlier used to display advertisements on pillars of another Elevated Road (Jagraon Bridge to Chand Cinema).

NHAI’s project director Nav Ratan said he had received a proposal from the corporation seeking permission for displaying advertisements on Elevated Road pillars. It had been sent to the higher authorities. Meanwhile, an official who was earlier posted to look after the Elevated Road project on Ferozepur Road, said advertisements could not be displayed on NHAI’s pillars.

MC Commissioner Sandeep Rishi said the civic body had handed over Ferozepur Road to the NHAI for the Elevated Road project, and after its completion, the road was to be handed over to the MC. Now, a proposal had been sent to the NHAI to hand over the Elevated Road pillars to the MC for displaying advertisements. In city areas, the civic body had advertisement rights.

He said these pillars were under NHAI’s Elevated Road. Once the proposal was approved by the NHAI, only then, the MC would hand over the pillars to the contractor and charge fees for the same.

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