The billboards put up on the section of Dacia Blvd. between the City’s Gates and the Airport may be placed vertically on illumination poles at the advertising operators’ expense. Such a proposal was put forward by the Association of Advertising Agencies within a project to modernize the municipality of Chisinau, Info-Prim Neo reports. Association member Andrei Jicol told a news conference that the billboards will have the dimensions of 3x4.8 meters and will be put on poles vertically, not horizontally as now. Thus, the billboard will not exceed the limits of the lawn strip. The billboards will be placed on each sixth pillar so that the distance between them will be 270 meters. Members of the Association say the poles on which the advertisements will be put should be set up at the expense of the billboard owners. The municipality should cover the costs for putting up the other poles on the road section that is now unlit. The billboard owners can also pay the lighting costs. This will enable the municipal administration to save about 20% of the expenditure. Andrei Jicol said that the Association has one more project that may be implemented simultaneously with the first. Under it, the billboards will be placed 10-15 meters from the roadway. “There will be set up about ten large billboards of 10x4 meters at a height of 10-15 meters, depending on the area, at least 10 meters from the roadway and at least 800 meters from each other,” he stated. He also said that in both of the cases the billboards will have the same form and color so as to create a common image. The number of billboards will decrease almost five times. “The two projects are aimed at keeping the workplaces and maintaining the state and local budget revenues,” stressed Andrei Jicol. Last July, the legislative body adopted amendments to the Road Law, banning the setting up of billboards at a distance smaller than six meters from the roadway and near bridges, viaducts and road barriers. Outside settlements, the billboards must be built up at a distance of minimum 150 meters of road signs. In this connection, Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca ordered removing the billboards set up illegally on the section of Dacia Blvd. between the City’s Gates and the Airport by June 1.