Jalandhar MC told to give outdoor advt rights to firms by Feb

JALANDHAR: Ten months after the issuance of the Punjab Municipal Outdoor Advertising Policy, 2018, in March, the local bodies department has finally set a deadline for the municipal corporations (MCS) across the state to allot outdoor advertisement rights to private companies.

In a communiqué to Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Bathinda, Phagwara and Moga MC commissioners, local government director has ordered to allot the rights for outdoor media devices (OMDS), which include small unipoles, big unipoles, bus queue shelters, benches, garbage dumps and others, by February end.

“It is requested to float auction notices for allotment for advertisement rights of OMDS at the earliest. Since the allotment is to be done on ‘one partner for one corporation town/ cluster’, it may be ensured that all available OMDS (existing or proposed) are offered for bidding and the advertisement rights are allotted before February 28, 2019, positively,” reads the letter.

Advertisement department superintendent Mandeep Singh said the Jalandhar MC will float the tender for outdoor advertisement on January 1, 2019.

“We have already made the preparations for the tendering process. We are hoping to allot the tender to a private partner by January-end,” he said.

When questioned regarding the reason for the delay in allotting the tenders, Singh said, there were some amendments that needed to be made under the policy by the local bodies department. They were done and sent to the MCS last week.

The delay in making the required changes by the local bodies department has costed the civic bodies in terms of revenue generation as they could not implement the policy and generate revenue from the outdoor advertisement devices in the present financial year.

The Jalandhar MC has failed to earn any revenue from the advertisement department from over a decade as the last payment it received was in 2006 by Durga Publicity. The ₹18-crore contract with Durga Publicity ended in September last year.

The civic body will be allotting 3,127 sites for outdoor media for a period of seven years, with an annual revenue target of ₹18.15 crore.

The local bodies department has asked to allot advertisement rights for seven years through progressive bidding. It has, however, set a condition for extending the tenure.

The contract with any private partner can be augmented for another two years only if the terms and conditions of the tender are fully complied by the private firm during the period of seven years, with no default case.