January 18, 2008	Friday	Muharram 08, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 17: Countless billboards, most of them giant-size, have returned to their previous locations over the past couple of months after being removed for playing havoc with the life and property of citizens in the last monsoon, which had brought strong winds and brought about the collapse of a large number of such hoardings.

The re-emerged billboards, standing all along the main thoroughfares in almost all parts of the city, have been installed not only in a haphazard manner but also dangerously close to busy intersections and roundabouts and many of them overshadow traffic signals.

While the advertisers involved put in their best efforts to make the billboards attractive and eyecatching, the drivers passing by these hoardings get distracted and this exposes them to the risk of accident.

In many cases, jumbo-sized billboards have their matching pillars fixed on pavements. The stands ultimately occupy quite a wide space of footpaths or pavements.

Annoyed by their helplessness, officials of the city government’s transport department said they had repeatedly been asking the departments concerned and the cantonment boards to stop allowing installation of billboard close to traffic intersections but in vain.

“We have reminded them on a number of occasions of the universal law that prohibits erection of billboards at such places but they seem carried away by advertisers’ strong desire to have their billboards at the places that often remain crowded by people and vehicles,” a senior official of the CDGK transport department said.

Commenting on the speedy return of the removed billboards, an official of the city government’s local taxes department said, “it seems as if there is a competition going on among advertisers,” pointing out that middlemen were instrumental in persuading advertisers and officials concerned to take advantage of the vacant sites for advertisement.

Soon after the death of nine people in various incidents of billboard collapse last year, the city government had decided to keep a strict check on the re-emergence of large size billboards and hoardings. While removing “dangerous” billboards in the following months, it tried hard to persuade the cantonment boards to agree on a uniform policy in this regard for the entire city.

However, the cantonment boards had given a lukewarm response to the CDGK proposal as it involved considerable revenues generated through the allocation of sites for advertisement. Nevertheless, the city government continued with its policy of ensuring safety and security of citizens’ life by not allowing advertisers to bring their hoardings back to their previous sites.