The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the richest civic body in the country, doesn’t have an internal department for carrying out routine structural checks of the thousands of towering billboards that dot the financial capital’s skyline and depends on private agencies for the job. According to documents seen by The Indian Express, the 120 ft by 120 ft billboard — which collapsed in Ghatkopar on May 13, killing 16 people and injuring 75 others — was erected after a structural audit was carried out by a private agency. The auditor issued a certificate on April 24 last year to Bhavesh Bhinde’s company Ego Media — which erected the hoarding — stating that the billboard was safe to operate. Later, the certificate was submitted to the Government Railway Police (GRP), the owner of the plot on which the hoarding was erected. Despite having a compliance certificate, the structure collapsed within a year. A structural audit is a scrutiny of the physical structure. In the case of billboards and hoardings, the audit examines the foundation of the structure to compare its load-bearing capacity and the maximum wind-load it can stand. While issuing a notice to the auditor who issued the certificate to Ego Media, civic authorities have also appointed the Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) for carrying out a technical inspection of the structure as, the authorities said, prima facie it has been found the billboard was not strong enough. Also, the overall height of the billboard was nine times more than BMC’s permissible limit of 40 ft. “You had issued a structural stability certificate to the agency whose billboard collapsed on May 13. The incident resulted in loss of life and it indicates that the certificate was issued without proper analysis, which is negligence from your end,” BMC’s notice to the auditor states. The contract between Ego Media and the GRP, which had leased out its land to the agency for setting up the billboard, mandated that the responsibility of the structural assessment lay with the private agency. “You shall be solely responsible for the structural stability of the display board. You will be responsible for maintaining the structure in good condition and any loss or damage arising out of negligence, you will be responsible for the same, especially considering the climatic conditions of the area,” read the clause in the contract. According to BMC’s rulebook, when a private advertiser wants to erect a billboard on a land parcel, he has to first submit a design of the billboard to the civic authorities that would specify the structural aspects. Following which, the advertiser appoints a private auditor for carrying out a structural audit of the design and, after the billboard is erected, another round of physical structural audit is carried out. This report is then submitted to the civic authorities who later issues licence to the advertiser. “The licence is valid for two years and, during the process of renewal, the advertiser needs to submit a new structural audit report to the BMC,” said an official. The agencies that carry out structural audits are private engineering firms that are empaneled or registered with the BMC. According to BMC’s documents, there are 1,742 such firms in entire Mumbai. Following the collapse of the billboard in Ghatkopar, BMC’s N ward office issued a notice to the private auditor who had issued the certificate to Ego Media on April 2023, allowing the firm to set up the billboard. In its letter, the BMC has sought response from the auditor on why his licence shouldn’t be cancelled. “The collapse of the said billboard showed that the certificate was issued without proper structural assessment, which is negligence from your end,” the BMC’s letter said. “The responsibility of proper auditing lies with the private auditors only, the BMC’s licence department doesn’t carry out these inspections on their own, and only if there’s a mishap then we showcause the auditor seeking their response on what grounds the clearances were issued,” the official added. At present, there are 1,025 billboards and hoardings in Mumbai, out of which 573 are illuminated, 382 are non-illuminated and 70 are LED billboards. Officials from the licence department confirmed the licences for erecting all these billboards were issued after structural audits were carried out by the private parties. The BMC earns between Rs 1.4 lakh and Rs 2.8 lakh per month from each signboard depending on the dimension of the hoardings. “The BMC doesn’t have adequate manpower to carry out structural audits of the billboards. In case there is a conflict then our members from the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) may intervene following recommendations of the court,” another official said. Meanwhile, activists flagged the importance of issuing proper structural audit certificates and BMC’s need to act as a sole monitoring agency. “The BMC is the richest civic body in the country and they need to be vigilant on these agencies. For setting up a billboard, a proper study needs to be carried out to understand if the structure will be able to bear the wind-load when hoardings are erected on them. In many cases, these tests are overlooked and hoardings are erected. If the authorities act only after a mishap, how can we implement pre-emptive measures to prevent loss of lives,” said city-based architect and urban planner Alan Abraham.
