Mumbai hoarding collapse: Two weeks ago, civic body sought to dismantle hoardings for violations

“BMC allows a maximum hoarding size of 40×40 feet. However, the billboard that collapsed was 120×120 feet. As a result, the local ward office issued a notice to the agency today, asking them to dismantle the structure and remove all hoardings with immediate effect,” the civic authorities said on Monday.

Earlier in December 2023 and again two weeks ago in April, the BMC’s tree department had registered an official complaint with the police against the agency. The civic officials said indigenous trees like Subabul, Peepal and Peltophorum that were planted in the periphery of the billboard had perished mysteriously.

“There were two separate incidents of tree deaths along the EEH, one in December last year and April this year when we found out that holes were drilled in the trunks of the trees in an attempt to inject poison inside them. This had led to the trees losing their leaves and eventually dying,” said an official from the BMC’s zonal tree department.

The land parcel in which the billboard was set up belongs to the Mumbai collector, and is under the possession of Police Housing Welfare Corporation under the government of Maharashtra.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) in 2020 had floated a tender to appoint private agencies for setting up billboards on the land. Later in 2021, the GRP had appointed M/s Ego Media for setting the billboards and had issued NOC as well. Currently, there are four hoardings that exist on the plot.

The civic authorities also stated that the agency didn’t have any permission from them for running this billboard.

Meanwhile, when Express contacted the representatives of the agency, they declined to comment.

A senior GRP officer said GRP commissioner Ravindra Shisve has asked the officer concerned to find out when and who gave permission for erecting the hoarding on the GRP land and if all rules were duly followed or not.