Bus shelters removed and advertisements ripped off in overnight drive

GHMC demolishes bus shelters and traffic umbrellas, removes unauthorized ads, amid allegations of corruption and monopoly in advertising.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s Enforcement Wing, in an overnight drive, has demolished several bus shelters and traffic umbrellas, and removed advertisements from several more bus shelters across the city.

As per the information shared by the Enforcement, Vigilance, and Disaster Management wing, a total of 80 traffic umbrellas and 20 bus shelter displays have been removed across GHMC’s purview, while four bus shelters have been totally removed from around the KBR National Park. This action of EV & DM assumes prominence in the backdrop of recent furore during the GHMC council meeting, where several corporators questioned the monopoly of a select few advertising agencies in the city, who have been displaying unauthorised ads on traffic umbrellas and bus shelters.

More than a couple of corporators spoke about ‘Karthik Tax’ which describes the alleged kickbacks received by an Engineering wing official in return for the illegal advertisements. It is noteworthy that in the aftermath of the allegations, services of a Deputy Executive Engineer named M. Karthik have been withdrawn from the Advertisement wing of GHMC, and the official was directed to report before the Engineer-in-Chief.

The GHMC had about seven years ago awarded bids for 1,200 modernised bus shelters at various locations across the city in two phases, which were chosen after a survey by the GHMC, Telangana State Road Transport Corporation and Administrative Staff College of India. The bus shelters were constructed after much delay, but several of them were uprooted eventually — some of them by the Hyderabad Metro Rail, which got its own shelters constructed on the footpaths near its stations, and some others by the traffic police.

Officials from the EV&DM informed that the agencies built new shelters at their vantage points which have not been authorised by GHMC, as a compensatory measure for the lost shelters. No action has been taken against the agencies about the same.

“We received fresh requests from the TSRTC for new shelters at a few locations. We asked the agencies to shift their shelters from the unauthorised locations to the spots where RTC requested. Meanwhile, we have removed the advertisements from the shelters,” Director, EV&DM, N. Prakash Reddy informed.