Ego Media, the advertising agency that was awarded the contract to erect the giant hoarding in Ghatkopar that collapsed and claimed 17 lives last month, was given five more hoardings on rent by the Government Railway Police (GRP) at the Dadar Tilak bridge and one at Ghatkopar — the hoarding that crashed — without the required tendering process.
A series of correspondence between Ego Media and GRP officials, accessed by The Indian Express, reveal that Ego Media was awarded nine hoardings in December 2021. While Ego Media was permitted to operate the nine hoardings — four at Ghatkopar, including the hoarding that collapsed, and five at the Dadar Tilak bridge — on GRP land, the tender process was followed only in case of three hoardings at Ghatkopar, each measuring 40×40 feet.
The other six hoardings — one at Ghatkopar and five at the Dadar Tilak bridge — were leased to Ego Media without any tender process, and no records of their tendering process are available with the GRP, a senior official stated. Four of the five hoardings at the Dadar Tilak bridge were dismantled following the Ghatkopar incident as they were oversized and violated BMC regulations, which stipulate a maximum size of 40×40 feet for hoardings.
“The hoardings at Tilak bridge have been there since 2008 and were handed over to Ego Media in December 2021. However, there are no records of the tendering process for those hoardings before they were awarded to Ego Media,” said a senior GRP officer who conducted an inquiry into the matter.
The source further said that after the awarding of the hoardings to Ego Media in 2021, the then GRP officials further revised the terms favouring Ego Media. “While the five hoardings at Dadar, in existence since 2008, were given to Ego Media in 2021 for 10 years, the tenure was later extended to 30 years at the request of Ego Media, which claimed to have incurred significant expenses reinforcing and stabilising the hoardings’ existing structure and RCC foundation,” the GRP officer said.
A similar request for extending the contract tenure was also made by Ego Media for the hoardings at Ghatkopar and Quaisar Khalid — the former commissioner of the GRP who gave permission for the hoarding that collapsed in Ghatkopar — approved it on July 7, 2022.
While extending the contract, the GRP also lowered the per sq ft per annum rent for the Ghatkopar hoardings by around 14 per cent, thereby reducing the cost for Ego Media.
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The documents show that on August 13, 2021, the GRP had sent a letter to Ego Media for putting up advertising boards at Dadar Police Colony near the Dadar Tilak bridge based on the rates approved for putting up advertising boards at Ghatkopar.
The GRP had then through a letter dated December 7, 2021, given permission to Ego Media to operate hoardings at Dadar.
In April 2022, Ego Media wrote a letter to the GRP stating that during the strengthening and stabilising of the existing severely unstable billboards structure near the Dadar Tilak bridge, and the RCC foundation at the site, they had incurred huge expenses. Citing these expenditures, Ego Media requested an extension of the rental period for the five hoardings from 10 years to 30 years.
An official confirmed that their request was approved in May 2022.
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Dozens of tender documents and correspondences between Ego Media and GRP, seen by The Indian Express, pertaining to the Ghatkopar hoardings, reveal that nearly all the major terms and conditions outlined in the tender document for the Ghatkopar hoarding were revised after the contract was awarded to Ego Media in December 2021, giving relaxation to the firm.
The revisions included increase in size of the hoardings, extension of tenure of the contract from 10 years to 30 years, change in the per square foot annual rent quoted by Ego Media, and the condition that advertisers will be responsible to obtain all necessary permissions from the civic body and other agencies and pay the necessary taxes and fees to the government agencies. While the tender was only for three hoardings, an additional hoarding was allowed to be put up there by the GRP.
An internal document of the GRP shows that while Khalid was Commissioner of the GRP then, the whole process of leasing out the Dadar Tilak bridge and Ghatkopar hoardings were carried out by ACP Shahaji Nikam.
When contacted, GRP Commissioner Ravindra Shisve refused to comment.
Khalid did not respond to a detailed query sent to him.
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Nikam was summoned by the SIT and his statement was recorded as several orders issued for the hoardings were signed by him.
Nikam, who recently appeared before the Mumbai Police SIT in connection with the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse case, has, however, said that he had signed on orders granting permissions for the hoardings based on orders issued by the then GRP Commissioner. The SIT recorded his statement and is likely to record the statement of his superior soon.
“He told us that he signed these orders based on file notings and written instructions from his superior — the GRP Commissioner. He has provided us with some documents which he says will back his claims. Our team will go through the paperwork and decide on the further course of action,” a source from the SIT told The Indian Express.
