The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) on Tuesday started a drive to enumerate illegal hoardings and banners across the 15 zones of the city.

Following a meeting on Tuesday, Corporation Commissioner G.S. Sameeran ordered officials to enumerate illegal hoardings and banners across the city. He also ordered the launch of a drive to regulate hoardings and banners.

The civic body will also initiate measures for asset monetisation and augmentation of revenue through public-private partnership (PPP) model.

“The GCC will identify the buildings that may be utilised for generating revenue through installation of hoardings. We will increase our own source of revenue,” said an official.

‘On the rise’

GCC ward 104 councillor T.V. Shemmozhi said: “The number of illegal hoardings has increased in the city. The GCC had issued permission for four hoardings at buildings along Jawaharlal Nehru Salai from the Koyambedu grade separator towards VR Mall and Thirumangalam. But the number of illegal hoardings has increased to 12 along the stretch.”

Pointing to the risk to stability of buildings because of hoardings during the northeast monsoon, Mr. Shemmozhi said: “They have installed three large hoardings on one building. The GCC should check the stability of such buildings. The GCC should also check whether the hoardings are likely to collapse during a cyclone. The risk of collapse of hoardings on motorists is high because of illegal hoardings.”

A senior GCC official said: “There are 912 authorised hoardings in the city. During the month of October 2025, there was a survey by ITCOT regarding unauthorised hoardings, and it found 329 hoardings that were installed without permission. Some of these had permission for one location but were installed at a different location.”

The official said: “We have instructed all zonal officers to remove these hoardings. Only 25 have been removed in the last few months. The feedback we received from the zonal officers said identifying illegal hoardings was a challenge. We are planning to find a technological solution such as giving QR code-based identification for all the authorised hoardings.

“Regarding banners, we are regularly removing as and when any are put up. Banners are not entertained within the city. Nevertheless, we notice that banners are put up by coordinators of religious and political events. The banners hindering the flow of traffic and those put up at dangerous spots are removed immediately. We impose penalties on the coordinators,” he added.