Bangladesh News

New billboards are still being installed on top of roadside buildings in the capital flouting a Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) ban on the practice.

Meanwhile, DCC is losing Tk 3 crore a year in lost revenue since it is neither being able to collect taxes from outdoor advertisers for those billboards, nor is it being able to dismantle those due to a court injunction against the city corporation ban.

Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka however told The Daily Star, “We don’t have any information regarding new installation of illegal billboards.”

“Whenever we get information fresh about installation of illegal billboards, we dismantle those. Dismantling drives are carried out quite often,” he added.

The mayor also said, “We are not being able to take any action against illegal installation of billboards since a court order regarding the matter has been pending. Until the court settles the issue we have nothing to do about those.”

In 2005, DCC imposed a ban on installation of billboards on building tops and decided to remove the existing ones. It also launched several drives for dismantling billboards that had been installed ignoring guidelines.

But the action against illegal billboards grinded to a halt after Outdoor Advertisement Owners’ Association (OAOA) filed two writs — one against DCC and the other against Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk).

OAOA President Rafiqul Islam, also managing director of Neptune Advertising Ltd, said, “The decision to impose a ban on rooftop billboards is depriving DCC of 2 to 3 crore taka a year.”

“None can stop installation of new billboards as the advertising business is a growing industry around the globe,” he asserted.

“We are ready to pay the taxes but it seems DCC is not willing to take it,” he said adding, “If installation of billboards is legal elsewhere, then what is the problem in Dhaka?”

Besides the ban, DCC guidelines on outdoor advertisements allow no overhead billboards in front of hospitals, government offices, educational institutions, mosques, temples, churches, museums, and at historical sites.

However, Shahbagh, Bangla Motor, Karwan Bazar, Farmgate, Mirpur Road, Mohakhali, Gulshan, Kuril Bishwa Road, Airport Road, Dhaka University campus and other major roads and intersections are bristling with over 10,000 billboards and other signage.

Over 3,000 rooftop billboards are currently installed in the city.

Haphazard bristling of billboards, trampling on the aesthetics of the city, is exceedingly blocking the city residents’ view of the open sky and the landscape, complained a number of Dhaka residents.

According to DCC rules, the size of a billboard may not exceed 13 square feet and it cannot be built within 10 feet or 3 metres of the edge of a road.

Neither can a billboard be built obstructing traffic movement at turnings of roads or at intersections. Moreover, no billboard is to be installed within 53 metres of bridges, level crossings, and intersections.

There also may not be more than 20 billboards within a span of two kilometres on either side of a road, the rules stipulate.

Neptune Advertising’s Rafiqul Islam however said building owners want proper use of their property, so they make agreements with advertising firms. The firms also want to do business and pay taxes to proper authorities.

“If the authorities don’t want the taxes, how can we pay?” he asked.

Officials of DCC Beautification Cell, designated to collect billboard data and monitor the sector, said they do not have the latest information regarding billboards in the city but are preparing a list.

OAOA General Secretary Haji Rashed said, “It is quite impossible to install a billboard or a signboard without DCC’s knowledge. But DCC doesn’t prepare an official list, as some of the officials concerned take bribes from the installers of unauthorised billboards in exchange for letting them dodge taxes.”

Talking to The Daily Star in the first week of January, Commander Masudur Rahman Chowdhury, DCC’s chief conservancy officer, said, “Since we imposed a ban on rooftop billboards, we are not collecting any tax from the installers of those.”