In a bid to discourage the ‘visual pollution’ caused by the crowded billboards in the Valley, the metropolis had dismantled all the illegal hoarding boards last year. The KMC had also charted out a plan to replace such billboards with electronic ones, but it never materialised.

Now, as an alternative a few advertisement boards have appeared on the recently-built overhead bridges around Ratnapark area.

But surprisingly, KMC officials have come to their defence, claiming that those boards are not causing any visible pollution. “The bridge constructors have mounted the advertisement boards as per the barter contract we have had with them,” said Dhanapati Sapkota, chief of the KMC’s Implementation Department. “Under the contract, the constructors are entitled to revenue generated from the display boards.”

While thousands of boards around the Valley were pulled down citing them as illegal during the six-month campaign, the new boards—none of them carrying public service announcements—smack of irregularities in the KMC. “We know its illegal but we are bound by the contract we have with the contractors,” lamented Sapkota.

The KMC used to generate around Rs 15 million in revenue from hoarding boards until last year. According to a KMC survey, there were around 653 hoarding boards in the Valley of which 385 were installed on rooftops.

The KMC had also asked the hoarding board entrepreneurs to switch to the digital

boards.