Date:24/03/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/03/24/stories/2006032419880300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Over 1,200 hoardings `unauthorised'

Staff Reporter

Will Chennai Collectorate nail them all in the ongoing demolition drive?

CHENNAI: Chennai Collectorate officials have a list of more than 1,200 unauthorised hoardings in the city that need to be pulled down.

With the agency's drive against unauthorised hoardings entering second day on Thursday, the big question is whether it would go all out.

The Collectorate has so far pulled down 20 hoardings in the last two days, in most cases ripping out the vinyls and not removing metal girders supporting them.

Sources say the list includes hoardings that have come up in last four years after a Government set deadline inviting applications for issue of licences. Based on a Supreme Court order in May 2001, the Chennai Corporation received applications for issue of licences. It received 3,609 applications of which 2,100 hoardings were already set up. After the deadline, more than 1,200 hoardings have come up in various parts of the city. Only these are being taken up for demolition now.