Crackdown on “illegal” hoardings across Mumbai and Maharashtra over the past two months has impacted the Out-Of-Home (OOH) advertising sector severely, prompting the media owners to seek Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s urgent intervention in the matter. 

A group of over 40 media owners associated with various OOH associations from across the state visited Shinde's official residence Vasrha on Monday. They were apparently promised a meeting with the CM, who also holds the Urban Development Department which governs outdoor advertising in urban areas. However, CM was not available, his staff heard them out, sources privy to the development told e4m. 

Media owners allege that different rules are being invoked by different bodies such as municipal corporations, municipalities, gram panchayats, MMRDA, PMRDA, PWD, which has created a havoc, making it impossible for them to operate their business. They demand that the government must clear the policy mess and ensure “ease-of-doing” business for them. 

Anand Katale, President of Maharashtra Outdoor Advertising Association, who was part of the delegation, said, “The government rules for outdoor advertising 2023 don’t cover villages. However, post Ghatkopar tragedy, hoardings are being demolished across villages even as media owners submitted structural audit reports. We demand that the government must bring villages under the purview of the policy and regularize our billboards after due diligence.”

Even as villages are not under the ambit of the hoarding policy, gram panchayats are allegedly approving billboards and charging a bomb. 

Stakeholders say that the licence fee levied on them for boards in village should be rational, not at par with the fee levied in cities. “Current taxes and fees have made OOH business unviable. This will affect not just media owners but hundreds of others who are part of this industry and help us put up billboards,” Katale said.

Notably, civic bodies across Maharashtra have been rigorously removing illegal billboards, and permissions for new hoardings have almost come to a virtual halt following the Ghatkopar incident that took lives of 17 citizens as an illegal hoarding collapsed on them. Even as some of them approached the Bombay High Court for respite, the court directives came against them. For instance, the HC directed CIDCO to remove “illegal” hoardings in Navi Mumbai. 

“We have invested huge amounts of money to erect these hoardings in agreement with landowners and after approval of local bodies. Some of us have even taken loans for this purpose. We have been duly paying all the taxes for the same for years and conducting regular structural audits as well. Now, notices have been served to us to remove these hoardings. This move will impact the livelihood of hundreds of families associated with the business,” the memorandum of Navi Mumbai and Raigad Hoarding Association stated. Due to the crackdown, media owners have not only lost their hoardings, but are no more able to advertise. Besides, the money that they were supposed to receive from advertisers over the last two months have also been stuck. 

A Mumbai-based media owner rues, “If we go by the rule book, most hoardings across Maharashtra are illegal. There is a complete mess at the administration level and loopholes in the policy appear to be deliberate to benefit a section of players while action is being taken on the rest.”

Compounding the issue, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (BMC) has drafted a new outdoor advertising policy that aims to eliminate rooftop hoardings entirely. According to sources, the policy will also prohibit advertisements on glass facades, allowing billboards only on building compound walls and fences.

Sources reveal that the draft policy includes mandates for third-party insurance and QR codes displaying information about the concerned agency. It stipulates a minimum 70-meter distance between large hoardings and a maximum width of 40 feet, a 30-meter distance between small boards and stationary vehicles, and a 10-foot distance for skywalks and foot over-bridges. Additionally, a seven-member committee of experts from IIT Mumbai and VJTI has established rules for the luminosity and operating hours of digital OOH screens.

The policy is expected to be released this week, detailing these new regulations, which may further tighten noose around OOH players.