Guidelines for billboard soon
The two Dhaka city corporations are going to formulate new guidelines to streamline the use of billboards to restore beauty in the capital.
Both Dhaka North and South city corporations have already formed separate committees that are working to that end, according to officials of the two city corporations.
BM Enamul Haque, chief executive officer of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), said a committee comprising eminent citizens and experts was working on it.
Once the guidelines were drawn up, measures would be taken to put things in order to make the DNCC areas more beautiful and greener, said Enamul, the head of the committee.
DNCC Mayor Annisul Huq too told reporters yesterday that the guidelines would be formulated by next month. He made the comment after inaugurating a special clean-up drive near Parbat Cinema Hall at Gabtoli.
Ansar Ali Khan, chief executive officer of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), said they had engaged a team of experts in preparing the guidelines to beautify the city, and it would submit the recommendations by next month.
He said once they got the guidelines, they would take steps accordingly.
Ansar said they would continue their drives to knock down illegal billboards in the DSCC areas.
In the absence of monitoring by city authorities, several thousand illegal billboards have been put up in an unplanned way all over the capital, posing a great danger to pedestrians and passing vehicles.
Deaths and damages of property due to collapse of poorly-mounted billboards have been in the news for quite some time.
Last month, a student was injured and a rickshaw was damaged after a huge unipole billboard collapsed at Shapla Chattar in the city's commercial hub of Motijheel.
In March 2009, a loosely-mounted hoarding atop Gulshan Shopping Centre collapsed, leaving two people dead and eight others wounded in the capital's Gulshan-1 area.
A person was crushed to death and three others were injured after a billboard fell on them near Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on May 6 the same year.
In April this year, a gigantic hoarding collapsed near Dhaka Club during a nor'wester. Two rickshaw pullers were wounded and a lawmaker's car, a police van, three minibuses and several rickshaws were damaged.
According to official records of fiscal 2014-15, the two city corporations had approved installation of around 1,000 billboards.
Moreover, government agencies and private building owners have rented out spaces and rooftops for billboards without permission from the authorities concerned.
CLEAN-UP DRIVE
DNCC officials and employees along with Japanese students in Bangladesh took part in the special clean-up drive launched by the DNCC mayor at Gabtoli.
Stressing the need for creating public awareness of cleanliness, Annisul said city dwellers should play their part in keeping their city clean.
“It is not possible for staffs of the city corporations alone to keep the city clean without the help of city residents,” he added.
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