The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) today (May 14) started taking down the remaining hoardings on Government Railway Police (GRP) land at Chheda Nagar in Mumbai's Ghatkopar, where 14 people lost their lives after a billboard collapsed during a dust storm.
At least 14 persons were killed and 74 injured after a 100-feet-tall illegal billboard fell at a petrol pump in Ghatkopar during dust storms and unseasonal rains that lashed parts of Mumbai on Monday.
The official said the civic body has prepared a plan to demolish the remaining hoardings on the GRP land, reported by news agency PTI. The BMC had earlier said that it issued a notice to M/s Ego Media Private Limited for installing the hoarding that collapsed on the petrol pump, and the police have registered a case against the company's owner, Bhavesh Bhinde, and others for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
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A senior official said the assistant municipal commissioner of the N-ward had issued a notice to an advertisement agency to remove these hoardings immediately, but the civic body has not received a response so far, reported PTI.
The GRP has informed that it does not have the necessary equipment to remove the remaining hoardings and requested the BMC to take them down, he said. The hoardings are erected back to back and will have to be razed one after the other, the official said, without specifying the timeframe for the demolition. Another civic official said the hoardings were located along the Eastern Express Highway, which connects Mumbai with Thane.He said they are placed about 100-150 meters apart. Though the BMC allows holdings of a maximum size of 40x40 square feet, the illegal hoarding that collapsed measured 120x120 square feet.