Amidst heavy rains, an oversized wooden hoarding collapsed at Sahajanand Chowk of Kalyan, a subdivision of Thane district, on August 2. The incident left two people with minor injuries and a few vehicles damaged.
The CCTV footage showed that people below the hoarding managed to escape before the hoarding collapsed and fell on the road and nearby vehicles.
Sachin Gunjal, Divisional Commissioner, Zone III, Thane City Police, told Storyboard18, “The structure of the hoarding has not collapsed, the frame of the hoarding came crashing down due to heavy wind and rain. Minor injuries have been reported due to the incident. Mahatma Phule police station officers are investigating the case and are in the process of registering the FIR.”
He added that the police is following the due legal process and people concerned with the matter are being probed.
Although the staff of Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal and fire brigade teams rushed to the spot, the incident took place at a time when Mumbai and its nearby areas have been under heavy scrutiny for the placement of illegal ad hoardings.
Read More: PWD to remove illegal ads from South Karnataka’s state highways and district main roads
In May, the collapse of an illegal ad hoarding in Ghatkopar killed 14 and injured over 75, shook the whole nation. The illegal billboard was roughly 120×120 feet—nearly thrice the permitted size of 40×40 feet.
Ever since then, multiple cities in the country have been taking stringent actions against the placement, size, legality and structure of the hoardings.
Read More: Railways and GRP permitted 306 hoardings, 45 of which oversized: BMC report
Civic bodies in cities including Delhi, Chennai, Pune, Kolhapur, and Navi Mumbai have said to have taken significant steps, including penalties in many cases.
Read more: Various civic bodies spur into action to ensure safety of ad hoardings
Marketers have come forward to check the bona fide credentials of the OOH vendors they choose to work with.