The city of Trichy is grappling with a visual and safety crisis as a fresh wave of unauthorized hoardings and flex banners has sprouted along its major highways and key junctions. These intrusive advertisements are obstructing official traffic signage and severely compromising visibility for daily commuters, raising serious safety concerns.
Banners Make a Controversial Comeback
After being heavily restricted for years, flex banners have seen a significant resurgence in Trichy since 2024. This revival is not limited to political advertisements. Public spaces are now cluttered with promotions from real estate developers, appliance showrooms, and announcements for private events like exhibitions and family functions. Pavements and street corners across the city have been overtaken, with even accident-prone zones in areas like Cantonment, Karumandapam, Thennur, and Thillai Nagar not being spared.
Residents report that many of these banners have been installed well in advance for the Pongal festival and are likely to remain until the celebrations conclude. The banners are indiscriminately attached to roundabouts, electricity poles, and telecom poles. In some locations, permanent scaffolding structures have been erected, which are then leased out to multiple advertisers, effectively commercializing public property.
Undermining Civic Initiatives and Public Safety
This unchecked proliferation directly contradicts and undermines the 'advertisement corner' project launched by the Trichy Corporation in 2022. That initiative had specifically earmarked designated spaces for posters and advertisements to maintain order. K Suresh, the councillor of ward 23, expressed his concern, stating that the rise of flex banners is sabotaging this novel civic effort.
The problem is compounded by selective enforcement. While officials often hesitate to remove political hoardings, banners for personal events like ear-piercing ceremonies also escape action. This laxity results in dangling banners that threaten commuters and block pavements for pedestrians, creating accessibility issues. Until November 2024, the Trichy Corporation conducted weekly drives to clear illegal banners, but the frequency of these enforcement actions has notably decreased.
Authorities' Response and Lingering Concerns
When questioned, a corporation official maintained that they are still engaged in removing illegal banners from roads and will coordinate with the police for the task. However, the visible accumulation of hoardings suggests that the current efforts are insufficient to curb the problem.
The situation presents a dual challenge: it mars the appearance of recently beautified traffic roundabouts and poses a tangible risk to road safety. As banners continue to block crucial signage at key junctions, the call for consistent and impartial enforcement of advertisement laws grows louder among Trichy's citizens, who seek both a visually appealing and a safe city.
