The Minister of state for IT and Transport, Mr Bimal Shah, launched the concept-dubbed as the `outdoor media of the future'-as well as the first six autorickshaws fitted with glowboards on top of the hood of the vehicles in Ahmedabad.

According to the company's managing director Mr Jitendra Shah, the concept widely prevalent abroad was introduced on car taxis in Calcutta two years back, having covered about 200 such taxis. Since no taxis ply in Ahmedabad city, the company proposes to fit the system on 1,000 autorickshaws in the first year.

Aerodynamically designed, each billboard with eight sq.ft of illuminated display area is run on a battery, re-charged when the three-wheeler is moving.

As it requires the respective state government's sanction, he said, West Bengal was the first state to grant such a permission. The governments of Orissa and Gujarat were the next, likely to be followed by Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan, MP, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

While Gladstone charges Rs 4,000-5,000 per vehicle per month as rent from the advertisers, it bears about Rs 22,000 as the cost of replacing the rexine hood of the three-wheeler with plastic billboard plus the battery. It also pays Rs 500 per month as additional source of revenue to the driver and an personal accident insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh. The state government gets Rs 1,500 per year as taxes.

The drivers in turn have to maintain a logbook and report to the service centre every fortnight for check-up and maintenance. In return, the drivers are expected to be courteous to passengers and not mix kerosene or any other adulterant with petrol.

The company, which belongs to the Rs 25-crore Gladstone Engineering Group and has seven facilities, is under licence and collaboration with AD-A-CAB Australia (sole licensee for South-East Asia except Pakistan).

Firms using the ad-on-cab concept include Coca Cola, Baskin Robbins, Kentucky Chicken Fried, Toohey's Beer, Mazda, besides Castrol, Britannia, Phillips India, Parle Products, Command and Net Cell Phones.