[anjan_c2007]

It's so common to see mushrooming of huge hoardings for publicity on angle iron frames, erected on busy streets and junctions in our towns, cities and metros. The busier the road or junction, the more the proliferation of these huge and not so huge hoardings by the advertisers and their advertising agencies are seen.

Yesterday, in Mumbai, in one of the greatest tragedies related to such hoardings, fourteen persons were killed and 70 were injured. A few deaths were revealed in the initial "breaking news" reports with several persons trapped therein after the huge hoarding collapsed due to stormy weather with dust storms, high speed winds and rains. The 100 foot tall (almost FIVE TO SEVEN STOREYS HIGH) hoarding fell on a petrol pump at the Cheddanagar junction in Ghatkopar area, triggering the tragedy. The hoarding was 120 x 120 feet in dimensions, that crashed on the adjacent petrol pump at 4.30 pm. Search and rescue operations were still under way till the media reports were filed. Civic officials now say that this hoarding was illegal. The owner of this hoarding is Ego Media, which has been booked. The Chief Minister has ordered structural audit of all such hoardings in the metropolis, only now. The Bruhan Mumbai Municipal Corporation does not permit hoardings greater than 40 x 40 feet in dimensions, going by the rule book.

And this illegal hoarding, at this prominent location must have been viewed by hundreds of law makers and enforcers, who must have just ignored it, or maybe there could have been some shady dealings to circumvent the rulebook.

The news :-

https://youtu.be/W-fprhg3j_o?feature=shared

The current news video:-

https://youtu.be/JbcbwLCI0j0?feature=shared

These days high speed winds have become commonplace not only in cities near the sea coast, but also in the mainland areas. We had one dust storm with high speed winds, but no rain in Delhi on 11.05.24. We also had the Amphan cyclone in Kolkata during May 2020, with wind speeds of 84 to 90 kmph when huts and houses were damaged, trees were uprooted and several hoardings had been twisted, got mangled and had fallen. Chennai city has also witnessed many such storms in the recent past.

Since such hoardings are all in public places, where huge numbers of people traverse, either as pedestrians or on vehicles, is it not necessary to strictly enforce laws for their annual structural audit for public safety and use the hammer to prevent illegal hoardings from getting erected. Nothing is bribe free in our country and villains could make merry with such enforced strict laws, but at least the more honest law enforcers could book violations, that could avert such avoidable tragedies.

During these times of climate change and unpredictable weather such checks and annual structural audits for hoardings have become all the more necessary. The Mumbai hoarding tragedy will compel all concerned to take a relook at the illegal mushrooming of hoardings in huge numbers in numerous locations.

[jigar1791@gmail]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

The Mumbai hoarding tragedy will compel all concerned to take a relook at the illegal mushrooming of hoardings in huge numbers in numerous locations.

Tell me if anything, but changes.
Such mishaps occur and there's a brouhaha about it in the media for a few days, until the issue subsides by itself OR should we say, life simply goes on for us, the general public.

To put things into perspective, the CM of Maharashtra has to take the same highway (where this hoarding is located) to travel to his residence (Thane) from Mantralaya. You may say, ignorance is bliss, until something happens - and that's exactly what has happened yesterday!

Every year, we see hundreds of tragedies happening around us because of law enforcement agencies' ignorance to continue the agreement of benefits gained/given that all know of, but nobody speaks against it.

Government machinery in India is always reactive. I can give you atleast 3 such disastrous examples over the last 2 decades, just from Mumbai to prove my point -
1. Coastal Security Improvement Plan after 2008 Mumbai Attacks
2. Procuring better, faster rakes under MUTP program to arrest deaths on suburban railway corridors
3. Building (Apartment) safety audits being carried out AFTER the Lakshmi CHhaya Building collapse in Borivli (2 mins away from where I reside - and a witness to the building crash)
4. Mithi River desilting after 2005 floods
5. Improving Mumbai's drainage and sewage network, to tackle increasing rains and inclement monsoons we face.

Yet, nothing changes! And I'm sure, nothing will change even after this incident.
Human life in India is seriously under-valued, which is the real reason why we have 'hota hai chalta hai' attitude around us.

Finally, I'd conclude by praying for peace to the departed souls AND wishing the injured speedy recoveries to resume life as usual.

[anjan_c2007]

According to the Times of India newsreport the hoarding was 120 feet high.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/.../110101664.cms

[SuperGirl_Dad]

Falling hoarding is one tragedy. But what is more surprising is the gas station looks like Bharat Petroleum (judging by the color of the roof), with the roof caved in.



Image link.

Doesnt the roof of such gas station supposed to be filled with fire retardants ?



Image link

If such important safety rules are not followed at gas stations, then even bigger tragedy is awaiting .

[Dippy]

It was horrible and unfortunate that people had to lose their lives because of this. Sadly it takes mishaps like these for authorities to take action or atleast pretend to show some action is taken.

This was a very large petrol pump and a busy one at that, Company owned Bharat Petroleum. I myself have filled up a few times here on my way to work. Passed the site this morning, rescue operations are still on.

[pkulkarni.2106]

May be in the developed world? I'd be surprised if it's a mandated & if every gas station in India has them.

Originally Posted by SuperGirl_Dad

Doesnt the roof of such gas station supposed to be filled with fire retardants ?

[ike]

Originally Posted by SuperGirl_Dad

If such important safety rules are not followed at gas stations, then even bigger tragedy is awaiting .

From what I hear this is a company owned and operated pump. If indeed that is the case, I'm quite confident all the minimum required safety apparatus will be in place.

[Quasar]

Really crazy. The hoarding is way oversized (120×120ft when maximum permissible is just only 40x40ft). Yet no one noticed such an obviously blatant violation? It isn't just for the municipality but also the responsibility of all to ensure that such conspicuously glaring violations do not happen. Just saw in the news that the hoarding was erected on railway land & hence, it wasn't the municipality's responsibility.

[vharihar]

I have often see large hoardings bolted to a structure on the ground by small bolts. I think this is an engineering design flaw. They have to design for the worst case winds. I'm an engineer but not a structural/civil engineer, and my sense of engineering tells me that the kind of bolts I've seen (for hoardings and foot-over-bridges) in most cities in India are not at all strong enough to withstand things like high winds or a large runaway vehicle ramming into it.

Originally Posted by Quasar

Yet no one noticed such an obviously blatant violation? It isn't just for the municipality but also the responsibility of all to ensure that such conspicuously glaring violations do not happen

Disagree. Can't pin the blame on ordinary people trying to get on with their lives in an already chaotic environment. It is the job of the BMC (or Rlys if it is indeed Rly land).

Originally Posted by Quasar

Just saw in the news that the hoarding was erected on railway land & hence, it wasn't the municipality's responsibility.

Is this the location?: https://maps.app.goo.gl/bY6nG9CSu8Rxiw5N7

How can it be railway land, its very far from the railway tracks. I can't see any railway quarters there either

[anjan_c2007]

Information about the person Bhavesh Bhinde, who had erected the ll- fated hoarding, that was also acclaimed as the "largest" in the Limca Book of Records. The person under reference is absconding and his mobile phone is switched off.

The info courtesy Hindustan Times :-

Mumbai hoarding collapse: Who is Bhavesh Bhinde?

(1) In January of this year, Bhavesh Bhinde was accused of rape, with a case registered against him at the Mulund Police Station. Additionally, a chargesheet has been filed.

(2) NDTV, citing unnamed sources, reported that Bhavesh Bhinde secured numerous contracts from the Indian Railways and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for installing billboards and banners over the years. However, he has allegedly breached the regulations of both entities multiple times.

(3) Moreover, Bhavesh Bhinde and other associates in his company are implicated in cases involving tree poisoning and tree cutting.

(4) 1n 2009, Bhavesh Bhinde had unsuccessfully contested the Maharashtra legislative assembly election from Mulund as an Independent candidate, India Today reported.

(5) According to an affidavit filed by Bhinde, when he contested the election, declared 23 criminal cases against him.

(6) Previously, Bhinde operated a company named Guju Ads, which was subsequently blacklisted by the BMC due to multiple legal issues involving him and the firm, India Today added.

(7) Despite the blacklisting, Bhinde proceeded to establish Ego Media Pvt Ltd and continued to secure contracts for billboards and hoardings, according to the sources.

(8) The billboard that collapsed on Monday had previously earned recognition in the Limca Book of Records for being the “Largest Hoarding”.

For details:-
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india...734997010.html

[am1m]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

Information about the person Bhavesh Bhinde, who had erected the ll- fated hoarding,...

This is the same story playing out for ages, and will be the same story for ages to come. Until we make corruption, the reduction of it, the MAIN agenda in every election, big or small, these tragedies will keep happening.

Think about it. Politicians spend our money to grant contracts to their friends, who spend maybe 1/10 of that on shoddy work, and pay a significant amount back to the politicians in the next election cycle. When lives are lost because of that shoddy work, the politicians again spend some more of our money in relief or payouts to the affected. And the cycle begins again with the next bids for contracts. Who in their right mind should put up with this?!

[NomadSK]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

Information about the person Bhavesh Bhinde,

This is the problem I completely detest, we try to find someone at the lowest insignificant level and make him a scapegoat. Better questions to be asked if we want to see the improvement would be,

-Who gave him the permission to install,
-Who gave him the land to erect,
-Who cleared it from the safety aspect,
-Who made him the payments,
-Who structurally designed the whole structure,
-Who were his fabricators,
-Who signed his bills,
-Who inspected the structures.

Dig the history and cancel everyone's licenses, because this is what happens in any normal country, where accountability and responsibility dimensions are clearly defined. One has to take a firm stand to see the changes and bring down all the illegal hoardings immediately.

And the same happens in the accident thread too. We keep on blaming drivers when the roads aren't desinged as per the standard and contractor takes the money to do the work as per the standard.

Rant ends till we have another tragedy and innocent lives are lost.

PS- Just few days before this incident on another thread this is what I had said,

@Smartcat - the shed over the roof would require structural engineering to install considering the wind load as the surface area is huge. And even the dead load of the structure. In my opinion it can’t be done without proper designing, specially if you live near coastal high windy areas and probably will cost a lot.

[lazy]

Such things have always happened in our country, and will continue to happen in the foreseeable future.

There's no one on this planet as dirty, dishonest, corrupt & lazy as Indians, ...

- that's why we elect such utterly corrupt politicians,
- that's why we tolerate such utterly corrupt & incompetent officials (policing, public services, municipal services etc),
- that's why our cities / towns/ villages are so dirty & polluted,
- that's why our food is loaded with pesticides, restaurants are garbage pits,
- that's why we don't revolt and keep tolerating this sub-human situation.

The problem is us, with Indians, we are okay to live & drive in gutter like conditions, watch IPL, and keep blaming the politicians and officials for this mess.

The uneducated, poor, hungry atleast have an excuse to break rules or be dirty or be dishonest, but literally everyone else is also happily breaking rules, being corrupt, throwing garbage, and not doing the right thing.

We, Indians, are like this only and we deserve what we get. Sorry.

cheers
lazy

[PreludeSH]

Did it fall down because the hoarding cloth/vinyl material was too strong. I have seen hoarding cloth/vinyl that come off in wind and rain.

Shouldn't the sheet itself have some punched holes etc so that wind can escape and not create such stress on them ? I have seen these also in many places.

[satish.gawai]

Noting will happen to the culprits. if this had happened before the election, something could have happened. Now there will only be talk talk and talk in media.

A similar case happened in Pune a few years back that time also there was a lot of ga ga for the new rules, audits, and whatnot. Nothing has happened.

14 people died on a broad day for no fault of theirs.

Seriously, there is no value of life over money in India. harsh but true.