The May 13 Mumbai OOH tragedy that took the lives of 17 people and injured over 70 has fuelled demands for stricter advertising regulations in the out-of-the-home (OOH) industry. So much so that the majority of the metro cities in the country have initiated regular inspections and removal of illegal ad hoardings.
While Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch continues to investigate the case against Bhavesh Bhinde and his company Ego Media, who erected the hoarding in Ghatkopar that collapsed on May 13, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is underway releasing the fresh set of OOH advertising policy by the August-end.
The new policy with revised guidelines and new provisions aims at bringing in greater transparency, accountability, and stricter norms to check violations. On July 5th, BMC released the draft of these guidelines, which were then made public for feedback.
The policy has new stringent clauses including hoardings’ height capped at 100 ft., a complete ban on hoardings on footpaths, right-of-way on national highways, automatic switch off for Digital-OOH (DOOH) at 11 pm and no new hoardings within 50 meters around statues of national importance.
Applauding efforts, while the industry stakeholders have welcomed the provisions, many fear the stringent guidelines might not address the ‘real problems’.
It is a long document that does not have many actionable points … more red tape with no ownership from the BMC, remarks Vikram Bhalla, Founder and Director, Vivify Asia.
“There’s not much change to the procedure for structural stability. The policy calls for more NOC and does not provide transparency in terms of what exactly has changed. What actions do the people constructing it and the government take to ensure that there is no repeat of the debacle which occurred? What is missing is what action the BMC will take for non-compliance – are they doing an audit, and what time frame for removing illegal hoardings?,” he highlighted.
The only bright side of the policy, according to him, is the approach on road placement.
The previous norms of 2016 by BMC did not specify the hoarding types or set a uniform minimum distance of 100 m between billboards on the same side of the road. The new draft policy has proposed a minimum distance of 70 m between two large hoardings, 30 m between small boards and stationary vehicles, and 10 ft for skywalks and foot over bridges.
No OOH industry stakeholder consideration
Praveen Vadhera, CEO, Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA), highlighted how the policy is being made in isolation with no consultation from the stakeholders.
“While there are a lot of good aspects to the new policy coming in purely from a perspective of safety, there are certain aspects that would harm the industry more than actually sort of safeguard it. Mostly because BMC is not conducting meetings or conversations with the stakeholders,” he said.
IOAA has recently given a representation to BMC, urging them to work closely in eradicating the illegal sites.
“If they provided us with a database of the sites they have approved/sanctioned, we would have posted it on our website to make sure that marketers only purchase those sites. This would lead to advertisers avoiding the illegal ones-which are by nature cheaper,” he shared.
Moreover, there are eight different bodies right now in Mumbai, authorised to permit hoardings- BMC, Railways, MMRDA, and BEST among others- which makes it difficult to track the illegal sites, regular inspections of the legal sites, among other routine measures.
For instance, during the Ghakopar incident, it was first assumed that the hoarding was erected under the authority of the Railways and for days it was difficult to track the responsible authority.
In its representation, IOAA suggested BMC to create one single nodal body or be the single nodal body through which all these permissions are routed to have better control over the OOH in the city.
However, Vadhera remarked that there has been very little interaction with BMC with regards to working together to rationalise the entire policy.
Aman Nanda, CSO and Head Marketing, Times OOH, added that while the entire draft is designed to ensure the city remains safe without compromising on business, covering aspects such as the shape or size of the site, the duration of DOOH sites, and various other factors, he recommended that there should be a single window for OOH concessionaires to seek permissions instead of approaching different authorities as it becomes a cumbersome task and time-consuming process.
In the draft, it was earlier reported that BMC might also put a complete ban on video or animated ads on DOOH, basis the recommendations from the traffic police, as they cause a great distraction for the people on the road.
Vadhera suggested that instead of working on banning video ads, the authority should work toward decluttering the DOOH. Although he agreed that any guideline that has a robust SOP for structural stability and assessment, is a welcome step.
The positives
The draft policy, which is said to have significant implications on OOH advertising in the city, also mandated no hoardings on rooftops and no ads on glass facades. Additionally, third-party insurance and QR codes with agency details on hoardings are to be mandatory, followed by stringent rules for DOOH also.
The draft has been prepared in consultation with Ernst & Young. Additionally, a seven-member committee including experts from IIT Mumbai has framed rules for luminosity and fixed timings of the DOOH screens.
Given the significant disaster that recently impacted the city, it is crucial to view all policy changes positively, as they are designed to improve industry standards, said one of the stakeholders.
Strict adherence to these new rules is essential, with implementation being the key to their success.
According to him, while the draft policy is largely welcomed, it acknowledges the gaps in previous regulations that some entities exploited, leading to the recent crisis. Although the draft may not address every possible future scenario, it is seen as a step in the right direction. The outdoor advertising companies understand the need for such regulations and are supportive, recognising that adherence is crucial to prevent future incidents.
New guidelines include the following:
-Hoardings maximum height capped at 100 feet from the ground level.
-Illumination of all OOH ads will be switched off at 11 pm. For this, an automatic timer device needs to be installed.
-Hoardings to maintain a least 25-meter distance from the stop line of each approach road at traffic junctions.
-No hoardings allowed on footpaths/ ‘Right-of-way’ on national highways.
-Denial of permission to set up hoardings on rooftops of buildings as well as glass facades
-Inclusion of QR codes on all billboards, which will have details of the owner, the agency, the date of issuance of the licence, and more.
-Mandatory third-party insurance
-Only V shape back-to-back placement of hoardings is permitted and L shape is excluded
-Distance between two hoardings should be of minimum 70 meters
-Distance between mobile hoarding and static hoarding placement should not be less than 30 meters. For foot overbridges and skywalks, the distance mandated is 10 feet.
-Structural audits of all hoardings every two years and geotechnical audits every five years
-Maximum allowable life for hoarding will be 50 years from the first approval