Chandigarh MC House meet: Advertisements on connecting passages among agenda

At the General House meeting of the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) scheduled to be held on Tuesday, the civic body has proposed to auction 357 public utilities and connecting passages in various markets and green belts for advertising on designated spaces.
After previous MC commissioner Anindita Mitra’s term ended and she was relieved last week, deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh, who was given additional charge of the civic body post, will be present in the meeting on August 27.
The sites have been divided into four categories- A, B, C and D, with respective reserve prices. A list of the sites and their corresponding reserve prices has been prepared for e-auction for display in “multi-lot” through LED backlit/digital screens.
This is the first time the corporation will be offering connecting passages for advertising in Chandigarh that has been sensitive to heritage norms. The MC has finished renovating connecting passages in the Sector 17 Plaza and work is underway in the Sector 22 market.
Also, this time the civic body is offering largest number of public toilets for advertising. These spaces have been lying vacant since the advertising agency that was awarded the project called it quits two years ago.
Decode Advertising Private Limited had been given the project for five years, under which the MC was to be paid ₹28 crore. However, the agency left the project in 2022, pointing out a number of hindrances, such as overgrown shrubs around the blocks and MC’s failure to remove tree branches or unipoles that block the view of ad sites, despite repeated requests.
The civic body had maintained that the utilities had to be taken on an “as is, where is” basis.
MC has now amended the terms and conditions of the tender with the aim of earning more revenue.
The other items on the agenda include Night Food Street and exemption to car bazaar dealers.