The chip will be provided by the civic body and any hoarding without this chip will be considered illegal.

It will contain details of the advertising agency, including its address, contact numbers, the size of the hoarding and the advertisement it is displaying.

These details will also be uploaded on the central server of the KMC.

“We will provide bar code readers to inspectors of the advertisement department,” said MMiC Faiz Ahmed Khan.

With its help, they will be able to determine if a particular hoarding is legal or illegal. The inspectors can get the details of the billboard by holding the bar code reader below the chip.

There are several hoardings which were not sanctioned by the KMC. These will be considered illegal.

“We are losing crores of rupees in revenue to errant advertising agencies for a long time,” Khan said.

Initially, the civic body will introduce these chips as a pilot project in selected areas of the city.

After testing the viability of the chips, the KMC will float tenders to install these chips inside hoardings.