The Thiruvananthapuram city Corporation is set to form squads of engineering and revenue wing officials to check the structural stability of hoardings installed at various parts of the city and to crackdown on illegal ones. The decision follows the recent hoarding collapse in Mumbai in which 14 people were killed and several injured.
Mayor Arya Rajendran had on Tuesday chaired a meeting of police and Fire and Rescue Services officers and representatives of various advertising agencies to discuss the precautions to be taken to avoid accidents caused by hoardings. Apart from the decision to form the squads, the meeting also decided to remove all the illegal hoardings which have been installed without following the guidelines and not having the hologram sticker provided from the Corporation.
500 hoardings
According to the Corporation’s estimates, there are over 500 hoardings installed in different parts of the city. While some of these are installed on poles fixed to the ground, quite a few of them are precariously perched on top of buildings with chances of heavy winds knocking them down. The Corporation’s structural engineers are supposed to check the stability of the hoarding before issuing certificates.
After a 120x120 ft metal hoarding, touted as one of the biggest hoardings in Asia by advertisers, collapsed in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar during heavy winds, civic bodies across the country have started cracking down on large hoardings, which pose danger to passers-by.
