BMC begins stripping buildings of hoardings

Main worry is structures’ structural stability after which also how those billboards have turn out to be an eyesore.

The BMC has begun putting off hoardings from all building rooftops and terraces in addition to foot-overbridges, in a move that can change how Mumbai appears.

While the hoardings are these days being removed at the foundation of a round issued in 2014, a comprehensive draft coverage on hoardings has been cleared and it handiest awaits the signature of Municipal Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi.

One of the primary reasons for banning hoardings on structures – both residential and industrial – and foot-over-bridges is the structural injury they purpose.

A license department legitimate stated that the 2014 round was issued after Mahim’s Altaf Mansion collapse that killed ten other folks. The building had a large hoarding on its terrace and experts believed it was some of the causes for the crash.

Another reason why, in fact, is aesthetics. In many cases complete structures have been obliterated via hoardings.

According to tough estimates, simply the city has over 1200 authorized hoardings. Of those, over 350 are on roof-tops. The number was far larger less than a decade in the past when even heritage precincts in south Mumbai have been marred via hoardings on structures.

The license department legitimate quoted above stated a lot of structures that experience those hoardings weren't designed to take the additional load. “Some of these structures are cessed homes and are poorly maintained. The structures weren't meant to take so much extra weight and the wind power that the hoardings create,” he stated.

The BMC first began taking action in opposition to roof-top hoardings in 2014 however a bunch of advertisers moved the Bombay High Court and were given a keep order. The BMC is, at this degree, now not touching the hoardings covered under this keep order. But it's, on the same time, now not renewing permissions for hoardings on terraces and roof-tops nor issuing new clearances. “Every effort is being made to get the keep vacated. Once this is executed, all rooftop hoardings will be removed,” stated Deputy Municipal Commissioner Nidhi Choudhari.

The new hoardings coverage, in the meantime, encourages virtual hoardings. These may also be installed at shops, multiplexes, buying groceries complex, industrial structures, petrol pumps, and all other places that experience LED display boards. It also bars political events from putting up hoarding on lands belonging to the collector, MHADA, PWD, Airports Authority of India and BEST, among others.

The coverage, alternatively, allows vinyl wraps, graffiti, and wall artwork on useless partitions. The civic frame may even offer 10 in line with cent rebate on hoardings that can have a CCTV digicam installed to provide are living feed to its disaster keep an eye on room. Hoardings operating on solar power may even get a 10 in line with cent rebate within the first 12 months.

According to business experts, having overrun boulevard corners and bus shelters, hoardings began to dominate residential areas round 1999-2000. “Housing societies now view them as a supply of additional source of revenue to pay their upkeep bills. If the building is situated at a highway junction, the society can simply make round Rs 1.2 lakh a month in spaces like south Mumbai, Bandra and Andheri,” stated an advertising government who did not want to quoted.

Billboards on the junction of Linking Road, Turner Road and SV Road in Bandra