Is Kochi MC transforming city OOH landscape?

After Kerala High Court ordered the urban local bodies to ensure removal of all unauthorised outdoor media across the state, the Kochi Municipal Corporation has come up with a defined plan for not only removal of unauthorised media but also to designate specific locations in the city for hoardings in order to keep the city clean.

In an exclusive conversation with Media4Growth, Shiny Mathew, Chairperson, Town Planning Committee, Kochi Municipal Corporation shared, “We are going to identify the locations, number of sites to be installed and their sizes which will help us in keeping a tab on legal and illegal flexes”. The corporation is working on the plan. “We will allocate sites at locations that will potentially attract good campaigns,” she added.

Once the locations are zeroed in, the corporation will float tenders for putting up the hoardings, she said.

Shiny informed that the flexes removed from the outdoor media will be recycled in various ways, including its use as material for road construction. And the process of recycling of flexes will continue in future as the corporation is planning to issue a mandate to all media owners for proper disposal of flexes either by re-cycling the material themselves or by submitting them to the corporation.

A Bangalore based agency has also been appointed by the Kochi Corporation to assist the civic body in identifying suitable locations for the hoardings, size of media, etc.