MUMBAI: Accepting the Justice (Retired) Dilip Bhosale committee report on the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse case, the state cabinet on Tuesday decided to implement a stricter policy for hoardings with regard to specifications, size and fixing responsibility on the officials concerned. The new policy, which will incorporate all the recommendations of the committee, will supersede all existing hoardings policies, and urban local bodies will soon be asked to crack the whip on the illegal hoardings in their jurisdiction.
The Bhosale committee’s 650-page report was submitted to chief minister Devendra Fadnvis on May 7. The government then appointed another committee under I S Chahal, additional chief secretary, home, to brainstorm on the 150-plus recommendations in it. The Chahal committee, accepting the Bhosale committee report in toto, presented an Action Taken Report (ATR) to the cabinet on Tuesday with 21 recommendations, and has directed the departments and agencies concerned to comply with the recommendations in one month.
On May 13, 2024, a massive 120×120-foot hoarding, erected by Ego Media in Ghatkopar, collapsed on a petrol pump during a spell of unseasonal rain and strong winds. Seventeen people were killed and 80 others were injured in the collapse.
The proposed policy mandates that hoardings should measure no more than 40×40 feet and will have to be a minimum of 11 feet and a maximum of 60 feet from the ground. Officials responsible for illegal hoardings will face a departmental inquiry and strict action, the ATR submitted by the home department has stated.
The new policy will make it mandatory for all conditions to be fulfilled before a hoarding is erected unlike the existing norms under which the compliance is checked after the hoarding is already put up by agencies. The ATR has also pressed for giving due importance to pedestrians and their rights by not allowing hoardings on footpaths, blocking the view of pedestrians and motorists. It recommends that hoardings not be allowed on compound walls and terraces and states that politicians and political parties should not engage illegal hoarding sites for their advertisements.
The ATR also states that, based on the recommendations of the Bhosale committee, action was taken against IPS officer Kaisar Khalid—an allegedly guilty party in the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse—by suspending him. “Similarly, the report has recommended stricter action against the officials who allowed the illegalities involved in the erection of the Ghatkopar hoarding,” said a Mantralaya official, requesting anonymity. “The home department will write to all municipal corporations and local bodies to immediately conduct a survey of all hoarding sites in their jurisdiction and remove all illegal hoardings.”
“Various agencies, including the BMC (which issued its policy in May 2022), revenue department, and agencies like MSRDC and MMRDA have their own policies,” said another official from Mantralaya. “All of them will come to an end once the new hoarding policy is announced by the urban development department in the next one month. Local bodies such as the municipal corporations and councils will be the implementing authorities for the policy. Hoardings erected on private lands and properties will also be governed by the local bodies and will have to abide by the same norms.”
Food and civil supplies minister and NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, in the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, expressed concern about the hardship faced by motorists and pedestrians owing to illegal hoardings. He said that the hoardings on highways violated the norms and were illuminated beyond permitted limits.