The operation was carried out in some areas, including Burrabazar, MG Road, Hazra Crossing and Shyambazar. The drive will take place on every alternate day till Sasthi, informed a senior official of the advertisement department. The newly prepared list by the civic body's advertisement department contains information about 319 permanent hoardings in the city. But the actual number of hoardings in the city exceeds the mentioned number by at least ten times.

But the civic body is not yet concerned about the huge number of billboards that still exist on the Bypass. "Be it the KMC or the KMDA, everyone is washing their hands off the responsibility. The Kolkata police had promised to pull down the billboards before the last Pujas. Later, it went back on its words, saying it was the responsibility of Bengal Police," said Banani Kakkar, a noted environmentalist who has been related with the removal of the hoardings from the wetland area since 1990.

Though KMC has been carrying out the drive to pull down hoardings, they are deliberately avoiding the E M Bypass, the stretch consisting most illegal hoardings.

Faiyaz Ahmed Khan, MMiC, Advertisement department, said, "We have not yet decided about pulling down the hoardings on the Bypass."