BMC’s draft guidelines to regulate hoardings are to be unveiled today
The guidelines from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation come after the tragic Ghakopar incident of an illegal ad hoarding collapse that took 17 lives, in May. In its investigation, BMC found 306 unauthorised hoardings in the city.
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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will be unveiling a draft policy for the regulation and streamlining of the out-of-home (OOH) media in Mumbai today, July 5th. This follows the tragic Ghatkopar hoarding collapse that took 17 lives and left more than 75 injured.
The draft policy, which is said to have significant implications on OOH advertising in the city, has strict guidelines including no hoardings on rooftops and no ads on glass facades. Additionally, third-party insurance and QR codes with agency details on hoardings are to be mandatory, followed by stringent rules for DOOH also.
On July 1st, State Minister Uday Samant sent notice to the parliamentary assembly and highlighted that the Maharashtra government will introduce a new policy on hoardings in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. He also mentioned that a committee led by retired chief judge Dilip Bhosle of the Allahabad High Court is looking into the issue.
According to the reports, the draft has been prepared in consultation with Ernst & Young and additionally, a seven-member committee including experts from IIT Mumbai has framed rules for luminosity and fixed timings of the DOOH screens.
The draft
The scope of the draft policy by BMC includes balloons, indoor and outdoor displays, shop signages, mobile hoardings, and waterfront hoardings. That apart, some of the major proposals include denial of permission to set up hoardings on rooftops of buildings as well as glass facades, inclusion of QR codes on all billboards, which will have details of the owner, the agency, the date of issuance of the licence, and more.
The draft policy has also made third-party insurance mandatory, besides drawing up new norms for audit inspection and examination and certification for stability of the new structures. The draft policy has also formulated fresh guidelines for DOOH advertising. Some of the features are:
- No permission for rooftop hoarding displays
- Only V shape back-to-back placement of hoardings is permitted and L shape is excluded - Distance between two hoardings should be of minimum 70 meters - No display allowed on glass walls
- Distance between mobile hoarding and static hoarding placement should not be less than 30 meters
- Mandatory third-party insurance
- Structural audits of all hoardings every two years and geotechnical audits every five years
- Maximum allowable life for hoarding will be 50 years from the first approval
On May 13, in a tragic accident, a 120x120-foot ad hoarding set up by Ego Media in Pant Nagar, Ghatkopar, collapsed at a busy petrol pump following a brief spell of unseasonal rain and strong winds.
Preliminary investigations conducted by the BMC have shown that the Government Railway Police (GRP) and the Railways approved 306 unauthorised hoardings in the city. 1,225 hoardings have been reported in Mumbai, according to the survey. Furthermore, the 306 hoardings allowed by the GRP and Western and Central Railway are illegal and do not have the requisite permission, in contrast to the hoardings cleared by the BMC, which are legal and fall within the permitted size of 40x40 ft. Of the 306 illegal hoardings, 45 exceed the permissible size of 40x40 ft.
The incident drew nationwide criticism, forcing various civic bodies spur into action to ensure the safety of ad hoardings. Civic bodies in cities including Delhi, Chennai, Pune, Kolhapur, and Navi Mumbai have taken significant steps to curb the menace of illegal hoardings, over the past few weeks.
