Mumbai: BMC Acts Against Ego Media, Pulls Down 8 Oversized Hoardings From GRP Premises

Mumbai: The BMC has pulled down eight oversized hoardings erected by Ego media, on Government Railway Police (GRP) premises, which are not in consonance with the civic policy.

The action was immediately taken after the Police Commissioner (Railway) requested the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) to remove the hoardings on their behalf as the GRP lacks manpower and required machinery. 

Ego Media, which had erected four hoardings in Ghatkopar, of which one collapsed on May 13, killing 16, was allowed to install eight more billboards on GRP premises in Dadar.

So, the DDMA had issued a notice under the Disaster Management Act to GRP to remove the eight hoardings within three days. However, Police Commissioner (Railway) Dr. Ravindra Shisve had sent a letter to the DDMA, requesting them to pull down the hoardings as per their terms and conditions since they do not have the required manpower and other machineries. 

"These hoardings were above the BMC's permissible limit, and it was also necessary to remove the hoardings to avoid any untoward incident in the future. Our team started removing these billboards on Sunday itself," said a senior civic official. After the tragic incident of hoarding collapse in Ghatkopar, the BMC has prepared a list of 45 oversized hoardings on railway and GRP land and issued a notice to remove these hoardings. 

In wake of the incident the ward-level officials have also issued notices to authorised hoardings in their respective wards asking the owners/ agencies to carry out a structural audit of the hoardings. It is mandatory for advertisers to submit a new structural audit report to the BMC after every two years. There are 1,025 authorised hoardings across the city in BMC's jurisdiction. Out of which 573 are non-illuminated, 382 are illuminated and 70 are LED hoardings. The civic body earned a revenue of Rs 100 crore as license fees through this hoarding last year.