Chennai set for large format OOH comeback

Chennai is set to welcome back OOH advertising in a big way following the issue of the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette Extraordinary that provides for application of license for operating hoardings and other advertising devices in the city. Under Part 1 of Chapter X of the Gazette, applications for setting up hoardings and other outdoor advertising devices may be submitted to the Municipal Corporation, supported with: 

• A plan of the hoarding to be erected indicating the height and other dimensions and the material to be used.
• Stability Certificate issued by a Structural Engineer Grade I registered with the local body.
• No objection letter from the owner of the land, in case the hoarding is to be erected in a private land or building. In case the land or building belongs to a department of the State Government or the Central Government or an undertaking of the State Government or Central Government or to any such related agency of the State Government or Central Government, a ‘No objection’ letter issued by the competent authority or an authorised Officer of the said department, undertaking or agency shall have to be furnished.
• A topo sketch indicating the proposed location of the hoarding.

A Single window approval committee constituted for the purpose shall be scrutinising the applications. Every licence shall be valid for a period of three years. 

Places of advertising

The Gazette provides for the following:

• Large format displays like scrolling boards/billboards/unipoles/bipoles/hoardings and digital boards with or without neon, LED lights, whether frontlit, backlit or both/ Balloons permitted on:
  • Panel on Walls or any other structure visible to public 
  • Bridges, flyovers and pillars, gantries, Foot-overbridges
  • Bus stands/Terminus 
  • Parks and Play-grounds. 
  • Boards/Digital Boards allowed for mobile advertising.
  • Display boards with or without lights allowed on bus shelters and bus stops.
  • Display/Panel boards with or without lights on public utilities like street lamp posts/kiosks/booths.
  • Display/panel boards with or without lights on parking lots.
  • Fencing/tree guards and display of information board like maps on landscapes, parks and gardens.
  • Display/panel boards with or without lights on toilets/public convenience/garbage collection centre/other service oriented utility. 
  • Steel barricades on traffic barricading. 
  • Vendor sign and welcome board on foot way and roadside 
  • Boards on construction site/real estate site.

Erection of hoardings shall not be permitted in the following areas:

• National Parks, district forests and water bodies.
• Historical monuments, cremation grounds, graveyards and ruins.
• World Heritage sites.
• Areas classified as remnant or endangered regional ecosystems
• Places for worship like temples, mosques, churches, gurudwaras.

The display types are permitted for hoardings are: 

• Static, printed on flex/paper/other materials. 
• Scrolling of printed displays with a dwell time of 10 seconds and transition time of one second.
• Animations or full motion video only at locations for viewing by non-vehicular traffic or at parking lots.

No “double-decker” hoardings shall be allowed i.e. two boards displaying two different advertisements with one directly on top of the other. And, the maximum height of a hoarding as measured from the base shall not be more than 10 m from the ground level for the advertising devices.

All hoardings other than those that are exempted from obtaining licence under section 117-Q of the Act must contain the information on the lower right hand side specifying the name of the licensee, licence number, period of licence i.e. validity and contact number of the licensee or his representative.