Hyderabad: Floating ads, not for now

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority’s project to set up “floating billboards” in the Hussainsagar is floundering. The contractor has taken off the billboards for “maintenance”. The GHMC, the  authority to give permissions for advertisements in the city, is yet to approve the plan. The HMDA wanted to start this initiative in Hussainsagar, Saroornag-ar lake. It floated tenders and finalised an agency for a two-year term to instal 10 to 15 floating billboards in each of the lakes.

According to GHMC chief B. Janardhan Reddy, the corporation is studying the HMDA proposal. “Advertisements in water bodies are new and have not been done before in the state. A committee was constituted to examine it and we will submit a report to government to take a final call,” he said. When asked, Dr Reddy said environmental aspects were not a concern.

According to sources, the GHMC is in a bind in view of the commercialisation. The firm contracted to supply the floating billboards will be paying nearly Rs 24 lakh per year for two years. This works out to Rs 1 lakh for each billboard for a 12-month period. HMDA officials stated that they had fixed a price of Rs 18.5 lakh but the highest bid was over 24 lakh. “Unlike unipole advertising, floating billboards have high maintenance costs and installing them costs over Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 2 crore apiece along with a solar panel of over Rs 8 lakh. Maintenance of boats and manpower to periodically change the ads in lakes is not easy. This is a new concept but once the tender period gets finished we will be getting a clear idea on revenue generation and take a decision accordingly,” an official said.

Mr L. Srikanth of Dhanush IT Solutions that bagged the tender said, billboards were eco-friendly. and this concept was already in place in Kolkata and GHMC was also given documents about it. “For authorities to have a better undrstanding of this project, we kept three empty billboards for more than six months. They were removed a few days ago for repairs,” Mr L. Srikanth  added. Asked why prior permission was not taken, a HMDA official said it was for the successful bidder to approach the local body. It was only when the HMDA realised that permission had not been sought that it wrote a letter.