Kathmandu, March 13:  The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has removed 12,045 publicity materials as hoarding and sign boards kept against rule.    

The KMC had started to remove the publicity materials kept making the city ugly from January 6 and removed 12,045 big and small publicity materials.    

According to the KMC, activities are underway to remove all publicity materials within mid-April kept against rule. Though the KMC had decided to remove all hoarding boards and signboards five years ago, the city is still seen ugly in lack of effective implementation of the decision.    

City Police Chief Dhanapati Sapkota said that activities to remove hoarding boards hanged from Tripureshwor-Maharajgunj, Maitighar-Bijulibazaar and Tripureshwor-Thapathali roads has already been completed.    

Likewise, publicity materials hanged from Bagbazaar to Ratnapark, Baluwatar to Dillibazaar have also been removed.    

Four teams have been continuously mobilized to remove hoarding boards every day and the teams remove some 200 hoarding boards in average, he added. Now activities are on to remove publicity materials kept at Thamel area.    

As per the rule, only the business firms registered at the KMC can kept hoarding boards. Though there is a rule that a business firm can kept only one hoarding board, but business firms have been found keeping more than one hoarding boards against KMC rule.    

The maximum size of permissible sign board has been set at three feet in height and 30 square feet in area. The policy also stipulates that while placing the sign boards, they should be kept in vertical position in an integrated way and not separately. Likewise, it stipulates that while hanging signboards at shopping complex and business malls, they should be placed vertically and at the same place and not in separate spaces.    

Similarly, sign boards should not be placed on the house walls, above shops, covering the window, at public places and in a way causing inconvenience to the neighbours. The KMC has stipulation that digital sign boards have to be placed in the case of business advertisement boards, and these have to be installed by identifying the proper place.     

KMC has intensified the task of removing the hoarding boards and sign boards after long since the Supreme Court's order not to keep them within Kathmandu and if already kept, to remove them.