The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has created an eight-member panel to draft new regulations for billboards and outdoor advertising. The goal is to balance the aesthetic, economic, and regulatory aspects of outdoor advertising.
The team includes experts like Rakesh Kumar, a former National Environmental Engineering Research Institute employee. It also includes specialists from IIT Bombay. Professors Shreekumar, Avjit Maji, and Nagendra Rao Velaga from IIT Bombay are also on the team.
The panel will be led by BMC Additional Commissioner Ashwini Joshi. Other members include Joint Police Commissioner Anil Kumbhare, BMC Deputy Commissioner Kiran Dighavkar, and Superintendent of Licence Anil Kate.
The panel will evaluate the risks of digital hoarding, including traffic distractions and light pollution. They will look into the environmental, health, and safety impacts of granting permissions for digital billboards. The panel is expected to present its report in one or two months.
This comes in response to a tragic incident on May 13, when strong winds and rain caused an illegal hoarding to collapse in Ghatkopar. The hoarding fell on a petrol pump, injuring over 70 people and killing 17. The collapsed hoarding was on Government Railway Police land in Chheda Nagar.
Following the Ghatkopar incident, the BMC announced more measures to prevent such incidents. The BMC has requested that Central and Western Railway remove large hoardings from their properties. Until a new policy is in place, no new billboards will be allowed in Mumbai.
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