The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Skyline begins to clear as hoardings come down

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Friday, Apr 11, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Skyline begins to clear as hoardings come down

Staff Reporter

It will take 20 more days to remove all the scaffoldings and girders

— PHOTO: V. Ganesan

STRIPPED CLEAN: People rummaging through remains of a hoarding that was pulled down by the Chennai Corporation near Pallavan House on Thursday.

CHENNAI: The city’s skyline saw a definite improvement on Thursday with the Chennai Corporation, in coordination with the police and the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, pulling down hundreds of hoardings following the Supreme Court directive to remove those that were unauthorised or unlicensed and billboards that obstructed visibility or posed a hazard.

About 500 Corporation staff headed by 10 Zonal officers worked from late Wednesday evening till Thursday evening to pull down the vinyl covers of 3,000 of the 4,100 hoardings identified for removal. In areas with heavy traffic, work will be undertaken at night. However, nearly 300 hoardings will remain for a few more days since they are fixed atop buildings.

Sixty gas cutters were used to cut the support pillars of the hoardings. Sources said the civic body was paying the workers operating gas cutters based on the height of the hoardings. For the huge ones that are over 20 metres tall, it will incur an expenditure of Rs. 3,000 per hoarding. Many people, who were not aware of the court order, were surprised to see the hoardings being brought down. Pedestrians, who watched a hoarding come down near Mylapore tank, welcomed the move and said they would have more space on the sidewalks.

Corporation Mayor M. Subramanian said companies, whose hoardings had not yet been pulled down, were welcome to remove them on their own.

He said the Chennai Collectorate had provided a list of 4,148 hoardings, which were being removed by the civic body. “We are presently pulling down the vinyl sheets.”

Worker killed

During the removal of a hoarding on Anna Salai on Wednesday night, a worker was killed. According to police, the victim, Vikram (21), of Choolaimedu sustained injuries while dismantling the hoarding. He was rushed to the Government General Hospital where he died.

On Thursday, a woman and a young boy were injured when a girder fell on them while they were rummaging through the remnants of a hoarding near Pallavan House.

According to sources in Chennai Corporation, it would take 20 more days to remove all the scaffoldings and girders.

Work in suburbs

Based on the instructions of the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration, municipalities in the western suburbs started removing unauthorised hoardings on Thursday. In Ambattur, 47 unauthorised hoardings have been identified for removal.

An official at the municipality said several hoardings on Tirumangalam Road and Chennai-Tiruvallur Road and in various areas, including Mogappair and Ambattur, were to be removed.

Of the 125 hoardings identified at Thirumullaivoyal and on the stretch between Avadi bus terminus and Pattabiram, 48 were removed by the Avadi Municipality.

An official said many of the hoardings were pulled down by owners themselves even before action by the local bodies.

The drive to remove unauthorised hoardings would continue on Friday with police assistance.

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