Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will reduce the number of hoardings on Kolkata’s roads to 250 from over 400.
This was announced by KMC’s advertisement department. They feel it would make the city appear cleaner as well as reduce the visual pollution.
The move would also help KMC garner more revenues from the remaining street hoardings. This will be a direct result of KMC deciding to auction all Street hoardings in the city from now on instead of taking the tender route.
According to KMC, auctions will be more transparent and help the civic body earn more revenue.
In the auction, the three bidders will sit together and can raise their quotation multiple times. This will be till they believe to can make a profit over the quoted price. This raises the prices of street hoardings put up for auction.
On the other hand, in a tender, the bidders submitted their quotes in sealed envelopes. They do not know what competitors are quoting, and hence, there is no scope to raise the quote in response to a competitor’s quoted price.
There are over 400 hoardings and 21 digital hoardings in the city. Once the number is brought down, companies will quote higher prices to buy the rights for the remaining ones.
KMC has already earned over two crore rupees by functioning gantries across Park Street that are used for decorative lighting during Christmas and New Year.
