The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will no longer allow hoardings on foot overbridges (FOBs) and road overbridges.
No new licences will be given to put up such hoardings, while old licences will not be renewed, similar to the BMC’s plan for decades-old buildings.
The decision comes in the wake of the Himalaya FOB and Gokhale Bridge collapsing under heavy load because of various factors.
As part of its new advertising policy, the BMC is overhauling the norms regulating hoardings to prevent defacement. It is looking into hoardings creating additional weight on structures, and announced plans to discontinue hoardings, posters and sky signs on buildings older than 30 years. It will strip these buildings of hoardings once their licences lapse, and will not grant fresh permits.
Revenue loss likely
It has now planned the same for FOBs and other bridges. “We have observed that any form of hoardings as well as their illumination increases load on the structures. Bridges and FOBs are designed to bear the load of vehicles and pedestrians. In the case of Gokhale Bridge, a lot of utilities had increased the load on the structure. Considering this, we have decided not to allow the hoardings on bridges and FOBs any more, even though that means we will have to let go of some revenue,” an official from the civic licence department said.
The civic body may lose out on lakhs or even a few crore rupees in revenue because of the decision. The policy now requires final approval from Municipal Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi.
According to the BMC, the policy will also apply to bridges overseen by the Mumbai Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, since the BMC is the licensing authority for these bridges.
The advertisement policy had nearly been finalised, but after the Himalaya FOB collapse, the department decided to review it with respect to stability of structures.
In 2014, a building called Altaf Mansion had collapsed, and one of the reasons was a large hoarding on top of it.
