After the incident of the collapse of hoarding in Ghatkopar in Mumbai in which 15 persons were killed, an alarming concern have been raised by the residents of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar about the safety of the people and the public property due to the unsafe hoardings in the city. After the incident, the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC) Property Department rose from a deep slumber and started the structural audit of the hoardings in the city.
CSMC adopted the hoarding policy in 2005. However, no structural audit was conducted of the hoarding in the city once. The hoarding agencies submit the structural stability certificate after two years and the CSMC is satisfied with it and no further action has been adopted in this procedure.
There are around 14 hoarding agencies which have around 420 hoardings all around the city. These agencies have erected huge iron structures for these hoarding and the advertisements on these structures have changed, but the structures remain permanent. They have not followed the norms prescribed regarding the place, height, width and others for erecting the structures.
An 80 feet wide and 40 feet long hoarding structure is erected at the Seven Hills signal. If this structure collapsed due to wind, hundreds of people standing at the traffic signal would die. The number of hoardings in the city is increasing rapidly and it also included around 30 to 40 illegal hoardings erected without CSMC's permission.
CSMC began the structural audit
CSMC deputy commissioner Aparna Thete said that the agencies provide structure stability certificates after every two years. They are also warned to conduct the structural audit regularly. On Tuesday, the CSMC began the structural audit. The dangerous structures will be removed.
The hoarding business started in the city around two decades earlier. The private agencies entered in this business and presently there are around 14 agencies in this business. Every day, these agencies highlight several advertisements on the iron structure erected permanently at various places. The weight of the iron structures varies according to the sizes and the biggest iron structure of 80 feet wide and 40 feet high weighs around 40 tons. A few years back, a hoarding collapsed in the Mahavir Chowk on Adalat Road, but fortunately no losses of lives were reported in the incident.
