Chennai Corporation to install 100 digital display boards to generate revenue

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation plans to establish 100 digital display boards for private advertisements and also issuing government alerts in various places to generate revenue through a public private partnership scheme.

As many as 100 Variable Messaging Display (VMD) at hotspots and crowded places of the city will be installed, in addition to the 100 VMDs already existing in Chennai.

The GCC expects to generate annual revenue of Rs 12 crore from this, with an average of Rs 1 lakh from each VMD/month. As per the resolution, the VMDs will be connected to the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) and the process will be handled by the System Integrator (SI). “Obtaining connectivity, cloud storage, maintenance, integrating with ICCC and selecting the spots to install the VMDs will be carried out by the SI,” said the resolution.

The GCC suggested that the VMDs could be installed at parks, playgrounds, beaches and public buildings as they would carry emergency alerts and not just private advertisements. The VMDs will function for 15 hours/day; of which, 2 hours will be allotted to the government to issue alerts in public interest. The remaining 13 hours will be utilised for the private ads.

A resolution was passed allowing the local administration to float a tender to find eligible bidders and SI for the project and effective implementation. It may be noted that as a part of ICCC, already 100 VMDs are functioning at various places which generated Rs 1.5 crore revenue between September 2024 and March 2025.