BMC begins stripping buildings of hoardings

BMC begins stripping buildings of hoardings
Photo by Satyajit Desai
Main concern is buildings’ structural stability and then also how these billboards have become an eyesore.

The BMC has begun removing hoardings from all building rooftops and terraces as well as foot-overbridges, in a move that will change how Mumbai looks.

While the hoardings are currently being removed on the basis of a circular issued in 2014, a comprehensive draft policy on hoardings has been cleared and it only awaits the signature of Municipal Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi.

One of the main reasons for banning hoardings on buildings – both residential and commercial – and foot-over-bridges is the structural damage they cause.

A license department official said that the 2014 circular was issued after Mahim’s Altaf Mansion collapse that killed ten people. The building had a large hoarding on its terrace and experts believed it was one of the causes for the crash.

Another reason, of course, is aesthetics. In many instances entire buildings have been obliterated by hoardings.

According to rough estimates, just the city has over 1200 licensed hoardings. Of these, over 350 are on roof-tops. The number was far larger less than a decade ago when even heritage precincts in south Mumbai were marred by hoardings on buildings.

The license department official quoted above said a large number of buildings that have these hoardings were not designed to take the extra load. “Some of these buildings are cessed properties and are poorly maintained. The buildings were not meant to take so much extra weight and the wind pressure that the hoardings create,” he said.

The BMC first began taking action against roof-top hoardings in 2014 but a group of advertisers moved the Bombay High Court and got a stay order. The BMC is, at this stage, not touching the hoardings covered under this stay order. But it is, at the same time, not renewing permissions for hoardings on terraces and roof-tops nor issuing new clearances. “Every effort is being made to get the stay vacated. Once that is done, all rooftop hoardings will be removed,” said Deputy Municipal Commissioner Nidhi Choudhari.

The new hoardings policy, meanwhile, encourages digital hoardings. These can be installed at malls, multiplexes, shopping complex, commercial buildings, petrol pumps, and all other places that have LED display boards. It also bars political parties from putting up hoarding on lands belonging to the collector, MHADA, PWD, Airports Authority of India and BEST, among others.


The policy, however, allows vinyl wraps, graffiti, and wall paintings on dead walls. The civic body will also offer 10 per cent rebate on hoardings that will have a CCTV camera installed to provide live feed to its disaster control room. Hoardings running on solar energy will also get a 10 per cent rebate in the first year.

According to industry experts, having overrun street corners and bus shelters, hoardings began to dominate residential spaces around 1999-2000. “Housing societies now view them as a source of additional income to pay their maintenance bills. If the building is located at a road junction, the society can easily make around Rs 1.2 lakh a month in areas like south Mumbai, Bandra and Andheri,” said an advertising executive who did not wish to quoted.


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

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