The cash-strapped Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has started looking at various off-beat methods to boost its revenue. As a part of this new found focus, it has decided to explore new spaces for display of outdoor advertisements and adopt modern technologies and methods to attract advertising companies from the next financial year onwards.

In 2005-06, MCD earned Rs.19.90 crore from sale of advertisement spaces and advertisement tax, while in the current financial year this figure is likely to go up to Rs.85 crore, a whopping 350 per cent increase compared to the previous year. The main reason for this would have to be the increased utilization of resources in outdoor advertisement display.

In fact, the Municipal Commissioner has drawn ambitious plans to boost the civic body's earnings from sale of advertisement spaces and advertisement tax. For this a revenue augmentation committee has been constituted under the Advertisement Department for identifying new advertising sites to increase revenue from advertisement tax. Newer methods that may be adopted by MCD for display advertisements would include screens, light emitting diodes (LEDs), motor vehicles and uni-poles.

Similarly, the MCD has also decided to further explore the innovative method of allowing government agencies and private organizations to take care of MCD's public utilities and other facilities in lieu of utilizing advertisement spaces for their ads. For instance, advertisement agencies and government departments are required to maintain schools and public services like providing drinking water and toilet facilities, development and maintenance of green areas, public toilets, footpaths, public spaces and common areas of commercial complexes in return for displaying their advertisements in these locations.

The MCD also plans to strengthen its enforcement activities by conducting regular checks and carrying out special drives for removal of illegal hoardings and prosecution of erring contractors. The civic body has also forwarded a proposal for monitoring unauthorised advertisements through global positioning system (GPS) which will help MCD detect unauthorized advertisements displayed in the city, allowing prompt action against defaulters.

However, the MCD is yet to resolve the matter relating to advertisement rights with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. In this case, while the MCD is demanding its share of revenue from DMRC from display advertisements on roads and bridges, the latter has refused to do so citing it had full right to generate revenue from sale of advertisement spaces on its property and it was not compelled to share this with anyone.