GUWAHATI: Cyclone Remal has uncovered a major concern that outdoor advertising in Guwahati, including hoardings and unipoles, are not safe, and the regulation of the rules and norms for the advertisements are not stringent and are ad hoc in nature.
A huge hoarding mounted atop a three storyed building collapsed in Maligaon on Tuesday, May 28 morning with a part of it hanging precariously over an adjacent building. Similarly, there were reports of a few unipoles collapsing in the city raising such concerns.
Recently, GPlus had reported that the illegal hoardings in Guwahati were prone to such accidents that could lead to a Mumbai-like incident in which several people died recently. The police, fire and emergency services and Guwahati Municipal Corporation are battling to avert any untoward situation.
Regarding the hoarding which collapsed at the Maligaon building, GMC officials said that the hoarding was authorised and Delta Publicity had taken permission from GMC. On questioning why such mishap happened, the official said, “Structural design certificate, issued by an engineer, is provided by the agency, thereafter the permission is given," adding action will be initiated against the engineer who provided permission for this structure.
Regarding the unipoles, the GMC officials were in a fix. A senior official said, “We are yet to identify the agency that installing the unipoles.” Another source in GMC said that the unipoles , which collapsed near Radisson Blu Hotel and Adabari, were installed by Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) and GMC cannot take action against the government department.
The source further said that DIPR recently installed over 100 unipoles alllegedly without any safety clearance from the GMC, which is the regulating body of outdoor advertisements.
GPlus tried contacting the DIPR director, other senior officials and even the IPR minister but no one was available for comments. GPlus also tried contacting the housing and urban affairs minister on the issue but even he was not available for comments.
The fire and emergency department officials said that in Guwahati only one horading and two unipoles collapsedi. The officials further said that there were one or two such incidents reported in Kamrup Rural as well and the sites were accordingly cleared.
Fortunately, the officials said there were no casualties. A source in GMC, talking to GPlus on condition of anonymity said, “There are illegal hoardings and unipoles in Guwahati and time to time the GMC carries out drive against these.” Talking about safety, the source said that the authorised hoardings and unipoles are safe as they are installed after producing structural safety certificates to the GMC but the illegal ones may be unsafe. He said that permission for the authorised ones are renewed as is the safety certificate.
The source also said that in Guwahati there are not so huge hoardings like the one that fell in Mumbai. With today’s hoarding collapse, the engineer providing structural design certificate is likely to be booked.
GMC commissioner MN Dahal talking to GPlus recently said, “We have identified some illegal unipoles and the work has started to demolish them,” adding that there are also illegal hoardings and as and when the GMC identifies these the agencies are penalised and the hoardings are removed. He stressed on working on a new and improved outdoor advertising policy. He said that it is difficult to identify all the illegal hoardings in the city with the enforcement manpower GMC has. He said there should be a unique symbol looking at which anyone can know that the hoarding is legal or illegal. He said that the urban local body is working on a new policy which will completely resolve the issue.
The GMC may be working on a new policy while the fact remains that there are illegal hoardings and unipoles in Guwahati which may be disaster-prone for its citizens. And today’s incidents showed that even authorised hoardings are not safe. Moreover the government departments lack coordination.