Hyderabad: Since Hyderabad does not frequently experience thunderstorms, the GHMC has never considered checking on the stability or strength of hoardings in the city. It has now been forced to rethink after a huge hoarding crashed at the Jubilee Hills check-post on Friday, smashing three cars.
There are 2,684 legally permitted poles, and another 6,000 unauthorised ones.
The GHMC has ordered that hoardings and uni-poles which are 15 years or more old must be removed or strengthened to withstand wind speeds of up to 150 km.
Hoarding owners have been asked to remove all unauthorised poles or cases will be booked against them. The mayor has ordered that every flexi, banner and hoarding should be checked for its strength and if it fails, it should be removed.
“The advertising agencies have been asked to constitute a committee with experts in structural engineering. GHMC is also planning to constitute a committee with senior engineers from JNTU and Osmania and following their opinion, there will be a joint meeting with both the committees, and the matter will be placed before the government to take a policy decision,” said mayor B. Rammohan.
The GHMC advertising wing has been instructed to inspect hoardings with flexies that pose danger. Two emergency teams for each zone have been formed to inspect the strength of the hoardings; those not strong enough will be removed by the team.
GHMC has also instructed that every hoarding and uni-pole must have a AIN number (registered with the GHMC to track the agency) along with mobile and landline numbers of the agency so that they can get the message immediately if any untoward incident occurs.
The GHMC advertising wing is the competent authority to grant permissions to advertising agencies to erect poles in the city.
