Mumbai: The District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has instructed both the Central and Western Railways (CR, WR) to adhere to their notice and promptly remove hoardings that exceed the permissible 40X 40 ft size on their premises.
The instructions were issued at a meeting convened by DDMA at the civic headquarters on Monday. However, the railway authorities voiced their objections to the directive. An official said that the BMC will submit a report on the matter to the Supreme Court.
On July 10, the apex court had directed the general managers of WR and CR to follow the instructions vis-a-vis the size of hoardings issued by the BMC on May 15 “in letter and spirit”. Further to the order, a meeting was convened by the DDMA, bringing together all its members, representatives from the railways, the traffic police and the BMC’s licence department. The meeting was chaired by additional commissioner (city) Ashwini Joshi and additional commissioner (eastern suburbs) Amit Saini.
Officials said that the railway authorities were informed that hoardings exceeding the permissible limit must be removed to prevent any possible mishaps, but the railways contested it and cited adherence to their own guidelines. “They emphasised that all hoardings on their premises undergo structural audits and receive approval from experts at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay. As they declined to comply with DDMA’s notice, we will report this to the Supreme Court,” an official added.
Chief public relations officer of WR, Vineet Abhishek, said, “As per the Supreme Court’s order, we have agreed to abide by the ruling. The WR has advised all the advertisers to ensure that the size of the hoardings is as per these directions.” The chief public relations officer of CR, Swapnil Nila, was not available for comment.
