Bangladesh News

An advertise firm is erecting a billboard filling up a portion of Gulshan Lake beside Kalachandpur Gudaraghat on Gulshan-1-Mohakhali link road.

An official of the add firm Neptune claimed they have permission from Dhaka City Corporation (DCC). But the DCC official concerned brushed aside the claim and said they are not allowing anyone to construct any roadside billboards or signs.

During a visit to the spot, workers were seen laying concrete foundations of a high iron poll on which the billboard would hang.

The workers said two months ago they got the work of a 30 feet by 15 feet billboard. One of them said the firm obtained permission from the DCC at a rent of Tk 100 for per square foot a month.

Earlier, a part of the Lake was filled up by dumping rubbish on that point for the construction.

Asked, Nazmul Haq, marketing and sales in charge of Neptune, claimed they have permission in this connection.

“Now no ad firm can establish a billboard without permission. After assessing papers and sites, the authorities allow or reject the firms’ applications,” said Haq. Admitting that they had earlier some illegal billboards, he said they have knocked those down.

For a billboard of 30 feet by 15 feet (450 square feet) they usually get Tk 4-5 lakh a year, he added.

However, DCC Chief Conservancy Officer Commander MR Chowhdhury, who is in charge of advertisement section, said they are not allowing anyone to set up new billboards.

“I didn’t permit any firm to erect the billboard there,” he told The Daily Star over phone.

Expressing his gratitude for noticing him the matter, he said they would look into it.

The DCC had earlier taken steps to bulldoze illegal billboards. The move came in the wake of newspapers reports that a firm of Arafat Rahman, son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, set up unplanned billboards in connivance with the Corporation.

Arafat’s advertising firm Advance AD allegedly wiped out its competitors from the market. It has had the control of the most lucrative advertisement spots in the capital during the era of BNP-Jamaat alliance government.