Guidelines for billboard soon

DCCs plan to get rid of haphazardly put up, risky hoardings in a month

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The two Dhaka city corporations are going to formulate new guidelines to bring discipline in the use of billboards to restore beauty to the capital.

Both Dhaka north and south city corporations have already set up separate committees that are working to that end, according to officials of the two city corporations.

BM Enamul Haque, chief executive officer of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), said a committee comprising eminent citizens and experts was working on it.

Once the guidelines are drawn up, measures would be taken to put things in order to make the DNCC areas more beautiful and greener, said Enamul, the head of the committee.

DNCC Mayor Annisul Huq also told reporters yesterday that the guidelines would be formulated by next month. He made the comment after inaugurating a special clean-up drive near Parbat Cinema Hall at Gabtoli.

Ansar Ali Khan, chief executive officer of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), said they engaged a team of experts in preparing guidelines to beautify the city, and it will give the suggestions by next month.

He said once they get the guidelines, they would take steps accordingly.

Ansar said they would continue their drive to knock down illegal billboards in DSCC areas.

In the absence of monitoring by city authorities, several thousand illegal billboards have been put up haphazardly across the capital, posing a great  danger to pedestrians and passing vehicles.

Deaths and damage of property due to collapse of poorly-mounted billboards have been in the news for quite some time.

Last month, a student was injured and a rickshaw got damaged as a huge unipole billboard collapsed at Shapla Chattar in the city’s commercial hub of Motijheel.

On March 15, 2009, a loosely-mounted hoarding atop the Gulshan Shopping Centre collapsed, leaving two people dead and eight others wounded in the capital’s Gulshan-1 area.

A person was crushed to death and three others were injured after a billboard fell on him near Shahjalal International Airport on May 6 the same year.

In April this year, a gigantic hoarding collapsed near Dhaka Club during a nor’wester. Two rickshaw pullers were wounded and the car of lawmaker Haji Salim, a police van, three minibuses and several rickshaws got damaged.

According to city corporation records of fiscal 2014-15, the two city corporations had approved around 1,000 billboards though there is a lack of space for those in the capital.

Moreover, government agencies and private building owners have rented out spaces and rooftops for billboards without permission from the authorities concerned.

CLEAN-UP DRIVE

DNCC officials and employees along with Japanese students in Bangladesh took part in the special clean-up drive launched by the DNCC mayor at Gabtoli.

Stressing the need for creating public awareness of cleanliness, Annisul said city dwellers should play their part in keeping their city clean.

“It is not possible for staffs of the city corporations alone to keep the city clean without the help of city residents,” he added.

Source: The Daily Star