Mumbai: The hoarding that collapsed on Monday during the sandstorm in Ghatkopar’s Pant Nagar of Mumbai, claiming the lives of 14 people and injuring 69 others, was already under the scanner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for a year over violations.
In December 2023 and again two weeks ago in April, the BMC’s tree department filed an official complaint with the police against the agency, according to a media report. Civic officials stated that indigenous trees such as Subabul, Peepal, and Peltophorum, planted around the hoarding, had mysteriously perished.
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Wednesday01 Jan. 2025
Media reported two separate incidents of tree deaths along the EEH, one occurring in December last year and the other in April this year. They discovered that holes had been drilled in the trunks of the trees in an attempt to inject poison, resulting in the trees losing their leaves and eventually dying.
The land parcel where the hoarding was installed is owned by the Mumbai Collector and is currently under the possession of the Police Housing Welfare Corporation, a government entity in Maharashtra.
A search has been underway by Mumbai Police at the residence of hoarding owner Bhavesh Bhinde in Mulund since last night. However, authorities said that he is missing. Police teams are deployed to locate him, as his mobile phone remains switched off, according to an officer.
The tragic incident in Ghatkopar, where a hoarding collapse claimed fourteen lives, was not an isolated case of illegal construction in the vicinity. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) discovered that Ego Media Pvt Ltd, the advertising agency responsible for the Ghatkopar hoarding, had erected eight additional hoardings in the area without obtaining the necessary permissions from the civic body.
The BMC issued a notice to Ego Media Pvt Ltd, instructing them to demolish the unauthorized hoardings. It was revealed that the land parcels on which these hoardings were illegally erected are registered under the ownership of the Home Department and the Maharashtra State Police Housing Welfare Corporation, violating Section 328 of the BMC Act, 1888.
A total of 88 people were rescued, of whom 14 were declared dead by doctors and 31 were discharged.
Bhavesh Bhide, the owner of a hoarding company and the advertising agency responsible for the illegal hoarding that collapsed in Ghatkopar, Mumbai, resulting in the death of fourteen people. The incident occurred during a dust storm and rain, with winds reaching 60 kmph. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) reported 88 victims, with 74 rescued and injured. At the time of the collapse, approximately 150 vehicles were present at the petrol pump.
The owner, Bhavesh Bhinde, and others were booked under Sections 304 (Culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 337 (causing hurt to another person by acting rashly or negligently) of the Indian Penal Code.
On Monday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s ward office sent a notice to M/s Ego Media, the private agency responsible for maintaining the billboards, asking it to dismantle all the structures and pull down the hoardings immediately.
