Railways will have to follow civic body laws on hoardings, says Uday Samant

The BMC allows a maximum hoarding size of 40X40 feet, but the billboard that collapsed in Ghatkopar was 120X120 feet. Samant said the government is open to changing the current law for hoardings and invited suggestions from the legislatures so that the state government could act on it

Mumbai: Responding to a debate in the Legislative Council over Ghatkopar hoarding collapse incident that resulted in the deaths of 17 people and left 74 others injured on May 13, state industry minister Uday Samant on Saturday said the railways, which belongs to the Centre, will have to adhere to civic body laws on hoardings.

The Ghatkopar hoarding collapse resulted in the deaths of 17 people and left 74 others injured on May 13. (Hindustan Times)

The BMC allows a maximum hoarding size of 40X40 feet, but the billboard that collapsed in Ghatkopar was 120X120 feet. Samant said the government is open to changing the current law for hoardings and invited suggestions from the legislatures so that the state government could act on it. In the Ghatkopar episode, the land was under the Railways police and apparently, the establishment did not follow the Mumbai civic body’s guidelines over the hoardings.

In his reply, Samant said the government would send instructions immediately to the railways to follow the local rules. “Though the railways belong to the central government, the state government will send instructions that they will have to follow the rules of the state government and local bodies to ensure the safety of citizens,” he said.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Sunil Shinde raised the issue and expressed concern over illegal hoardings in Mumbai and 48 dangerous hoardings found on the railway land and asked what action the government has taken on it. Shinde also pointed out that BMC has decided to form a new policy for hoardings in the city and whether the state government will have any say in it. All party members expressed concern over the safety of citizens due to hoardings and stressed the need to amend the law and policies about it.

Samant said the state government would take a positive approach to changing the current laws and policies about hoardings.

The state government has constituted a committee under former Allahabad high court chief justice Dilip Bhosle to probe the hoarding collapse in Mumbai. “We as state government have a positive approach to change the current law and policies regarding the hoarding to ensure the safety of hoardings. I urged legislatures to give suggestions for changes in current law so that the government could act on it,” said Samant. He also said that there would be a say of local bodies in the policy for hoardings and there should be 80% uniform statewide rules with 20% autonomy to local bodies to frame some rules as per the local conditions.