Bhubaneswar, April 29: A hoarding blown away by strong winds that landed on a car parked near the Poonama Gate railway overbridge yesterday has brought into focus the safety aspect of the mounting billboards on buildings at the city’s busy junctions.

“The falling of a hoarding along with its entire installation (frame and cement support) near Poonama Gate shows that the municipal and development authorities are not giving adequate attention to the safety aspects of the public. I use the road daily while coming to Pokhariput from the city. As the areas surrounding the railway overbridge are dotted with many huge hoardings, the authorities should make a proper audit of their presence and punish those who have erected huge hoardings without paying any attention to the safety of the people,’’ said Pitambar Parida, a resident of Ananta Vihar, Phase-II, in Pokhariput.

On April 29, 2011, a huge hoarding had hit a college bus in the capital when a powerful thundersquall destroyed many hoardings. Similar mishaps also took place in 2009 near Kalpana and Rupali squares in which case some autorickshaws and local shops were damaged by the fall of the giant structures.

Apart from the hoardings dotting the capital, illegal hoardings have also come up on government land along NH-5.

The city has more than 650 hoardings, many of which are situated over various residential and commercial buildings. Apart from these, more than 400 mobile towers are also dotting the Bhubaneswar skyline. Many suspect that if proper attention is not paid into the safety aspect of these giant structures, cyclonic weather may lead to serious consequences. While the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has increased the annual licence fees for each mobile tower from Rs 17,000 to 50,000, no clauses were attached on the safety aspects of the mobile phone towers.

“Unlike mobile towers for which the structural approval comes from the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), the decision regarding hoardings is taken by the BMC,” said a BDA official.

Piyush Ranjan Rout, a city-based urban management practitioner, said: “The structural side of the mobile towers is being looked after by the BDA. But, as the BMC is collecting licence fee from these structures, it should have some sense of responsibility. Yesterday’s uprooting of a huge hoarding proves that even the mobile towers may be susceptible to the impact of a strong wind as they are installed in the same manner as big hoardings are placed on rooftops. There should be a ban on hoardings on buildings along the city’s major roads as this could lead to fatal accidents in case a billboard comes crashing on a pedestrian.”

“Illuminated display boards or wall-based hoardings, as displayed on walls in other countries or as done in the five major malls in the city, can be followed in other parts of the city. Billboards installed on steel frames should be avoided to save the lives of pedestrians in case of a storm. As the civic authorities are claiming licence fees on mobile towers, they should also come forward with a monitoring strategy.”

At its meeting in March, the city management group has decided that there would be no hoardings between Vani Vihar and Sishu Bhavan squares as the road expansion work gets hampered by the shifting of the iron structures. The public works department has also been asked to coordinate with the BMC on this aspect. But, actions on this can only be taken after the expiry of the present contracts between the advertising firms and the civic body.

Municipal commissioner Vishal Kumar Dev said: “The civic authorities are taking note of the accidents. The safety aspects will be added from the next contract as the present contract is to be there for a year. From the future contracts, we will see that no unsafe installations dot the city skyline.”