The number of people who died in the Mumbai hoarding collapse touched 14 on Tuesday morning. National Disaster Rescue Force officials said over 74 people have been rescued alive.
The deaths happened after a 100-foot-tall billboard fell on a petrol pump in the Ghatkopar area amid gusty wind and unseasonal rains that lashed Mumbai on Monday.
According to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials, search and rescue operations were going on, and of the injured, 31 people have been discharged from Rajawadi Hospital. Two teams of NDRF are at the spot to carry out the rescue operations along with the Mumbai Fire Brigade and other agencies. "The NDRF has rescued three people and located four dead bodies under the rubble. We are unable to use hydraulic and gasoline equipment to avoid any fire incident. We are using cranes to remove the debris," NDRF Inspector Gaurav Chauhan told ANI last night.
#WATCH | Mumbai's Ghatkopar hoarding collapse incident: Visuals of the rescue operations from the spot.
— ANI (@ANI) May 14, 2024
The death toll in the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse incident has risen to 14. pic.twitter.com/6A9rcebtVX
#WATCH | Mumbai: Ghatkopar hoarding collapse incident | Latest visuals of the rescue operations from the spot.
— ANI (@ANI) May 14, 2024
The death toll in the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse incident has risen to 14 pic.twitter.com/Rr0Qee6dHI
Illegal billboard
According to authorities, the hoarding was illegal and the location where the incident occurred has four hoardings set up on the railway land.
Following the incident, the BMC issued a notice to M/s Ego Media for installing the hoarding that collapsed, asking it to immediately remove the remaining three hoardings near the spot.
A case has also been filed against its owner Bhavesh Bhinde, and others 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.
Though the Assistant Police Commissioner (Admin) had permitted erecting the four hoardings on behalf of the Commissioner of Railway Police, Mumbai, including the one which collapsed on Monday, no official permission or NOC was obtained from the BMC.
The BMC on May 2 had issued a notice to the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Admin) of Railway Police to instruct the advertising agency about the cancellation of all permissions and to remove the hoardings, a BMC official told PTI.
The agency also faces a police case filed in 2023 for allegedly poisoning trees to put up hoardings which were obstructing the view of the hoardings in the Chheda Nagar area.
Though the BMC allows holdings of a maximum size of 40x40 square feet, the illegal hoarding that collapsed measured 120 x 120 square feet in size, the official added.
Shinde announces probe
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who visited the spot of the hoarding collapse incident in Ghatkopar late in the evening, has ordered a structural audit of all hoardings in Mumbai city. "The hoardings, if found illegal and dangerous, would be removed immediately," he said.
"It is a very unfortunate incident. The government will probe it, and the people responsible will face action. I have also asked the BMC commissioner to conduct a structural audit of all the hoardings in the city. Those found illegal and dangerous will be removed," Shinde told reporters.
He announced aid of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of each person killed in the hoarding collapse.
