Kathmandu, March 28

Kathmandu municipal police have started removing hoarding boards from the city which are degrading the landscape and skyline of the city, and jeopardising safety of pedestrians and other road users.

The advertisement materials that were illegally put up using a loophole in the law were removed a day after THT published a story about the issue.

Some of the places from where hoarding boards were removed are Maitighar, Sundhara, Thapathali, Kalimati, Kalanki, Sorhakhutte, Naxal, airport and Baneshwor. “Around 16 hoarding and flex boards were removed from rooftops of private houses today,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Dhanapati Sapkota, who heads the municipal police unit, told THT. The drive was launched as per the instruction of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Office.

In the first phase, the municipal police will remove around 85 hoarding boards that have been placed illegally on rooftops. “We plan to complete this work

within two to three days,” said Sapkota. In the next phase, all hoarding boards put up on private and public land will be removed, Sapkota said without giving a timeline on completion of this phase of work. “We’ll then remove all advertisement materials placed on utility poles and signboards hanging on the facades of buildings,” Sapkota said.

The drive launched by Kathmandu Metropolitan City is aimed at making the city beautiful and safe. Kathmandu Metropolitan City’s Advertising Board Promotional Material Regulation Policy 2013 states that although hoarding boards and outdoor advertisement materials are a good revenue source for the city, their negative effects on urban development, public safety and environment should also be taken into account.

“We are removing all the hoarding boards based on this spirit of the policy,” said Hari Kunwar, head of KMC’s Urban Good Governance Department.

KMC does not have data on the number of hoarding and flex boards put up in the city. But around 85 per cent of hoarding boards have been put up defying the law, according to Shiva Raj Adhikari, director of the Department of Revenue at KMC. These billboards can be seen on rooftops, verandas, sides of buildings, utility poles, walls and almost everywhere, destroying the aesthetics of the city and creating safety hazards.

“In case of injuries and fatalities, people will definitely hold KMC responsible,” said Adhikari. This is also the reason why KMC has started removing the hoarding boards.

KMC’s Advertising Board Promotional Material Regulation Policy 2013 clearly states that it is illegal to put up commercial hoarding boards and advertisement materials on additional frames on rooftops and verandas of private and public houses. The policy also bars placement of such materials in public places and on utility poles and roadsides.

The policy, however, has a loophole. It says hoarding boards of over 200 sq ft can be placed upon conducting a safety audit from technicians certified by the Nepal Engineering Council. Based on this provision, advertisers have been putting up hoarding and flex boards of every size almost everywhere in the city.

“But most of the hoarding boards have been put up without conducting safety audit and without paying fees,” said KMC’s Revenue Department Head Noor Nidhi Neupane, justifying the reason for bringing down those advertisement materials. “We will soon start removing all the hoarding and flex boards that have been placed without taking permission from us. We are also planning to replace all hoarding boards with light emitting signboards from the next fiscal as per the decision was taken by the metropolitan city in December 2018.”

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