The Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) on Monday launched a mobile app, on a pilot basis, for booking and renewal of licences of advertisement hoardings in the city.

MCC Commissioner Ravichandra Naik told reporters that a person booking or renewing licence of a hoarding has to register using his/her mobile number to log in to the app. After giving details about the hoardings and online payment of fees, the link connects the revenue inspector. The inspector visits the spot, measures the size of the hoarding, and uploads information along with photograph of the place and provides geocoordinates of the place.

The information is reviewed by the Assistant Revenue Officer and then finally approved by the Deputy Commissioner (Revenue). Then the licence certificate gets issued, which will have a QR code and also the period of licence. This QR code should be displayed on all the hoardings. “The hoardings that do not have the QR code will be considered as unauthorised hoardings and the same will be removed,” he said.

Mr. Naik said there are a total of 886 advertisement hoardings on private properties and 198 on government premises in the city. Of these, eight hoardings are LED screens. A total of ₹2.61 crore revenue from advertisement hoardings licence was collected in the 2025-26 financial year.

The mobile app has been developed to streamline the process of issuance and renewal of licences for advertisement hoardings. “We have started the process of onboarding of existing licences to the app. We will address technical glitches, if any, in the app during the trial and officially launch it shortly,” the MCC Commissioner said. The app will be available on Google Play shortly, he added.