[sustran] Off with billboards, try vehicles:MoUD Govt

Vinay Baindur yanivbin at gmail.com
Tue Apr 29 22:39:05 JST 2008


Has funding PT through billboards been tried out anywhere else. Hopefully
clear up visual pollution But how will accidents come down if this is on the
back of BUSES
MEtros and Trains already have it anyway



http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080429/jsp/nation/story_9203398.jsp#

Off with billboards, try vehicles: Govt
  MANDIRA NAYAR       A public bus displays an ad with pictures of actors
Abhishek Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra in Mumbai on Monday. (Reuters)

*New Delhi, April 27:* The urban development ministry has written to states
asking them to remove billboards and get companies to advertise on public
transport instead.

"The money generated should be put in an urban transport fund," a senior
official in the ministry said. "This fund will then be used to improve
public transport."

The move — which will require states to change their advertising policy —
will go a long way in making roads safer, according to the ministry.

"There have been court orders against hoardings," an official said. "They
just add to visual pollution. Research has shown that they distract drivers.
If these advertisements are put on moving vehicles, they will not cause any
accidents."

Chennai and Mumbai have already been ordered by the Supreme Court to clear
the skyline of billboards.

Several cities have been using public utilities as advertising space.

Bus shelters in Delhi — now gleaming in a new-age steel avatar — have been
beneficiaries of generous advertising.

"Escalators in Hyderabad in certain areas have been financed through
advertisement revenue," an official said.

The New Delhi Municipal Council — the civic agency responsible for Lutyens'
Delhi —has built toilets in the area only through money received from
advertising.

The ministry also wants states to formulate policies to reduce the number of
private vehicles on roads.

"It is important to improve the quality of buses in cities," the official
said. "About 60 per cent of the people in cities travel by buses. But the
buses currently in use in many cities are cages, fit only for animals."

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission — under the urban
development ministry — has given funds to cities to improve their public
transport, but there is still need for the system to be self-sustaining, the
official said.

A dedicated urban transport fund, set up with money from advertisements,
will ensure that the process does not stop after the term of the five-year
mission ends.


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