Agra OOH industry body questions plan to make city’s MG Road ad-free zone

The Agra Municipal Corporation’s plan to declare the Agra city’s MG Road as an ad-free zone has deeply upset the OOH players doing business in the city. The Outdoor Advertising Association of Agra maintains that there are many inconsistencies in the municipal body’s outdoor advertising guidelines. On one side, the municipal body would want to curb any private media from being put on MG Road, but on the other side, the municipal body itself has floated tenders calling for bids for media on this road.

Amit Khatri, President of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Agra, said that lack of clarity in policy guidelines and norms that govern outdoor advertising in the city is causing significant downward pressure on the industry at a time when the OOH players are battling various constraints including tight ad spends on OOH.

The Association has also sought to clear the air on the issue of unauthorised hoardings in the city, which drew the attention of all following a news report in the Agra edition of a leading newspaper a few days back that suggested the city has some 50,000 unauthorised hoardings. Ambresh Nath, Vice President of Outdoor Advertising Association of Agra and Razeev, Secretary, Outdoor Advertising Association of Agra jointly stated that the report was flawed as the entire city has no more than 5,000 hoardings. They also pointed out that the civic authorities have not initiated any action to bring down any outdoor media in the city.