Kozhikode council to sue CMS

The corporation council has decided to sue the Mumbai-based CMS for allegedly violating a 10-year-old agreement for installing and maintaining traffic signals in the city.

The council will cancel the agreement, remove the structure being used for advertisements by the firm and proceed legally to recover advertisement tax amounting to Rs 7.5 crore.

As per the agreement, the company had to set up and maintain traffic signal system in the city in return for using advertisement hoardings. Though CMS set up traffic signals, they never functioned properly while it made money through advertisements.

The council said that the company had given false replies to notices and denied that traffic signals were not functioning. The agreement stood cancelled as no official from CMS had attended the meeting held on December 15, 2005.

The council waited for a direction from the district collector who was also a signatory to the agreement. "The district collector has directed that the agreement be cancelled and advertisement hoardings be removed. The company would be issued a notice in this regard" said mayor M Baskaran.

Meanwhile, the council has initiated discussions with Keltron for setting up traffic signals in the city.