State sets terms of reference for Ghatkopar hoarding collapse probe

On May 13, the oversized hoarding collapsed on an adjoining petrol pump, killing 17 persons and injuring over 70

MUMBAI: The state home department on Monday announced the terms of reference for the probe into the Ghatkopar hoarding crash by a committee headed by retired judge Dilip Bhosale. The probe will include the cause of the crash, the sequence of events leading to the incident, the role of private companies and government officials in the episode, including financial trails, and whether there was any collusion between the two.

On May 13, the oversized hoarding collapsed on an adjoining petrol pump, killing 17 persons and injuring over 70. Following an uproar, the government announced the judicial probe on June 10. However, there was immense delay in deciding the terms of reference or the scope of the inquiry by the committee. (Raju Shinde/HT Photo)

On May 13, the oversized hoarding collapsed on an adjoining petrol pump, killing 17 persons and injuring over 70. Following an uproar, the government announced the judicial probe on June 10. However, there was immense delay in deciding the terms of reference or the scope of the inquiry by the committee.

The Government Resolution (GR) issued on Monday has finally set the scope of inquiry. Apart from the cause, sequence of events and role of private companies and government officials, the committee will also go into the details of the status of the land, including the change in its ownership, the process of allotment of petrol pumps, hoarding rights and so on. It will review the adequacy or otherwise of the process for approval/ installation of hoardings at railway or police properties for their welfare.

Apart from Justice Bhosale, the committee will have an additional commissioner from the BMC, an additional director-general of police, a structural expert from IIT Bombay, an income-tax expert or income -tax commissioner and a CA having expertise in economic offences. It will recommend a review of the hoarding policy of all railway/ police land to avoid such incidents in future. It will also recommend changes to policies and procedures to prevent illegal installations or operations and ensure that both hoardings and petrol pumps do not pose a danger.

Meanwhile, a BMC-appointed committee on digital hoardings headed by additional commissioner Ashwini Joshi has decided to restrict videos played on digital hoardings on traffic corridors which have heavy traffic. Videos will be permitted only on digital hoardings in malls, bus depots, waiting areas and commercial buildings. IIT Bombay has been asked to conduct a study on the impact of videos on traffic.

The committee has decided that only multiple static images will be allowed with a duration of eight seconds with smooth transition. Gantry hoardings (hoardings fixed to an overhead structure, usually spanning a road) will be prohibited. Strict penalties have been suggested for non-compliance. The minutes of the committee’s meeting issued on Monday also remark that content on digital hoardings should not be offensive, obscene and distracting.

The permission for hoardings will be based on a single-window system and the chief engineer of the Development Plan will give the standard operating procedure for obtaining permission on the lines of that for mobile towers.

The BMC-appointed committee has also tackled the light pollution issue and mandated that based on global case studies, digital hoardings must not exceed 3.2 times the surrounding light levels. Considering varying norms in cities worldwide regarding hoarding illuminance in public spaces, DMC (Spl) Kiran Dighavkar has been tasked with appointing a lighting agency to conduct a field study on the current hoarding illuminance, supervised by committee members. The minutes say that hoardings must have sensors to dim or switch off in the late-night hours.

The committee also decided that the BMC should appoint a specialised agency to conduct a comprehensive field assessment of the illumination levels of digital hoardings. This assessment will include field visits by committee members to evaluate the illuminance level limits and gather citizen feedback through surveys. The agency will also explore the feasibility of installing sensors and cameras to monitor and regulate illumination levels in real time and the uploading of this data to the cloud, which will be an open platform to monitor the digital hoarding, the minutes said.