THE BILLBOARD which collapsed on Monday in Ghatkopar’s Pant Nagar claiming eight lives and injuring 69 others was already underneath the scanner of civic authorities for the previous one yr who had referred to as for it to be dismantled for violations.
On Monday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Company’s ward workplace had despatched a discover to the personal company–M/s Ego Media, that maintains the billboards, asking them to dismantle all of the buildings and pull down the hoardings with fast impact.
“BMC permits a most hoarding dimension of 40×40 ft. Nonetheless, the billboard that collapsed was 120×120 ft. Because of this, the native ward workplace issued a discover to the company at the moment, asking them to dismantle the construction and take away all hoardings with fast impact,” the civic authorities stated on Monday.
Earlier in December 2023 and once more two weeks in the past in April, the BMC’s tree division had registered an official grievance with the police towards the company. The civic officers stated indigenous bushes like Subabul, Peepal and Peltophorum that have been planted within the periphery of the billboard had perished mysteriously.
“There have been two separate incidents of tree deaths alongside the EEH, one in December final yr and April this yr after we discovered that holes have been drilled within the trunks of the bushes in an try to inject poison inside them. This had led to the bushes shedding their leaves and finally dying,” stated an official from the BMC’s zonal tree division.
The land parcel during which the billboard was arrange belongs to the Mumbai collector, and is underneath the possession of Police Housing Welfare Company underneath the federal government of Maharashtra.
The Authorities Railway Police (GRP) in 2020 had floated a young to nominate personal companies for organising billboards on the land. Later in 2021, the GRP had appointed M/s Ego Media for setting the billboards and had issued NOC as properly. Presently, there are 4 hoardings that exist on the plot.
The civic authorities additionally acknowledged that the company didn’t have any permission from them for working this billboard.
In the meantime, when Specific contacted the representatives of the company, they declined to remark.
A senior GRP officer stated GRP commissioner Ravindra Shisve has requested the officer involved to search out out when and who gave permission for erecting the hoarding on the GRP land and if all guidelines have been duly adopted or not.