KMC ups drive against hoardings
The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has planned to deploy additional manpower to accelerate its hoarding board removal drive in the city starting August 17.
The KMC is planning to mobilise five teams across the Kathmandu valley with a target to complete the campaign within early next month, said city officials.
According to chief of KMC Implementation Dhanapati Sapkota, each team will consist of five skilled manpower and helpers. “To bring down a hoarding board we need at least five metal workers. That’s why we’re planning to bring in more man power to pace our work,” said Sapkota. “As soon as we mobilise more manpower, the owners will be pressured to remove boards voluntarily.”
The hoarding board entrepreneurs, who renewed their licenses last year, have also been granted one month to remove the boards. “We have issued a notice to the existing entrepreneurs to remove their boards within this month. If they do not comply, we will seize the metal frames and auction them,” said Sapkota.
A total of 108 boards have so far been removed, with the KMC pulling down 40 of them while the rest being removed by the entrepreneurs themselves.
Sapkota said that most of the entrepreneurs were ignoring the notice as their permits had expired and they have failed to pay rent to the houses and space owners. “Many house owners have started pulling the hoarding boards themselves as they have been deprived of rent for a long time,” he said.
Last month, the KMC started removing hoarding boards from various locations in the city after the entrepreneurs did not heed its repeated requests to relocate them.
According to a survey carried out by the KMC, there are around 653 hoarding boards in the city of which 385 are installed on rooftops.
Billboards have so far been removed from Airport road, Maitighar, New Road, Exhibition Road, Jadibuti, Tinkune, New Baneshwor, Thapathali, among others. The KMC has also asked the hoarding board entrepreneurs to switch to a modern technology and install digital hoarding boards .
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