South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has claimed to generate Rs 140 crore as revenue alone from the advertisement. The civic body is eying to collect Rs 200 crore in this fiscal year.
Taking action against the violators, the revenue department of SDMC has also issued 2500 notices, filed 2000 police complaints and imposed Rs 10 lakh fine for related violation to curb menace of illegal and haphazard unipoles in its area, said Prem Shankar Jha, Deputy Commissioner of revenue (Advertisement).
Jha said that the corporation aims at collecting revenue Rs 200 crore in the same fiscal year as it has identified 200 sites for installing unipoles for the same.
According to estimates, the civic body adds Rs 7 to 8 lakh as revenue from one unipole and the department has identified 200 sites for installing unipoles.
Explaining it further, Jha said that the civic body collected Rs 42 crore in 2015-16, Rs 119 cr in 2016-17 and Rs 140 crore till now this year.
With action against errant violator taken by the official of the revenue department, the civic body increased its revenue by 60 per cent, he said.
He further said that with the efforts put up by the department; started bearing fruits further stimulated us to set the next target of Rs 200 from advertisement.
It is an interesting that on the one hand South Corporation has increased its advertisement revenue dramatically; the North and East Corporation's revenue for this year are Rs 22 cr and 7 cr respectively, a senior corporation official who did not wish to be named said.
The official said that illegal hoardings and unipoles can easily be noticed across the city due to the negligence of civic bodies, resulted in huge revenue loss especially for cash-strapped north and east municipal corporations.
Earlier this month, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation decided to take strict action against the persons for using spaces unauthorized advertisement after BJP councillor Poonam Prashar Jha submitted a report in which signages operated by private companies without the permission was highlighted.