National highways to turn ‘no advertisement’ zones

NEW DELHI: India’s highways will become no advertising zones as the government has ordered the removal of all advertisement hoardings across the length and breadth of national highways. According to an order issued last week by the road transport and highways ministry, no hoarding will be allowed on the right of the way on national highways. The right of way also includes the 10-metre of land strip on both sides of the highway that runs along the length.

India has a national highway network of one lakh km which the government has planned to double in the next four years. The ministry has formed a special team that would work on the removal of hoardings by prioritising the highways that have maximum congestion. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has been tasked with the inspection of all highways on immediate basis.

“It has been decided that the regional and liasoning officers within their jurisdiction will inspect the NHs (national highways) by prioritising heavily trafficked NHs and other NHs in stages and submit inspection reports to the ministry for further necessary action,” the government said.


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The ministry feels that advertisements cause distraction which often leads to accidents. An internal study conducted by the ministry has focused on the need to remove huge hoardings, a move which is in line with international practice.

The government is working on a national roadmap to reduce the number of road accidents in India. The country has over five lakh road accidents every year on the NHs in which over 1.5 lakh people are killed. A target to reduce road deaths by half by 2020 has been set by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.

The roads ministry has also launched Pradhan Mantra Surakshit Sadak Yojana with a corpus of Rs 2,000 crore to fix the black spots on highways where accidents occur regularly.

ET VIEW: Remove the eyesore
The advertisements can often be an eyesore or a distraction, and so very much a potential traffic hazard. They need to be removed alright. But in parallel, there’s an express need to step-up commercial activity along the highways, so as to reduce the cost of infrastructure and also to provide for their upkeep. It would also boost tourism and travel, for which there is vast potential in a large diverse nation like India. Further, planting and nurturing tree saplings along highways can be turned into a highly visible advertising and brand-building national endeavour.