The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the Central Railways are locked in a long-standing legal tussle over hoardings that are put up in the railway premises around the city.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the Central Railways are locked in a long-standing legal tussle over hoardings that are put up in the railway premises around the city. According to the BMC, railways must share the revenue generated from the hoardings that are ‘visible from municipal streets’.
The BMC maintains that according to its policy guidelines revised in 2007 by the license department, it is mandatory for any organisation to first take permission from the civic body before allowing such hoardings to come up in its property. They also need to pay the civic body revenues generated from the hoardings visible from municipal streets.
Following non-compliance of these guidelines, the BMC can pull down the hoardings, as they are illegal, sources from the License department said referring to the ‘Policy guidelines on the grant of permission for display of sky-signs and advertisement under section 328 and 328A of the MMC act 1888’.
Earlier in 2015, the BMC pulled down several hoardings which were put up within the railway premises but which were visible from municipal bridges, flyovers, or streets. A civic official on the condition of anonymity said, “We took a series of actions in the M (east) and M (west) wards, corresponding to Govandi and Chembur areas, the L ward in the areas of Kurla — especially the Nehru Nagar area. As per our guidelines, these hoardings were illegal as the railways had given out contracts to hoist them, but not taken prior permission from the BMC, as is mandatory.”
Subsequently, Manish Advertisers, the contractor who had put up the hoardings, took the BMC to court, and made railways a party to the case against the BMC.
A spokesperson from the Central Railways said, “The railway does not take permissions from the BMC. Railways is a central authority, with its own mechanism of issuing tenders and giving contracts. Once we give contracts for setting up these hoardings, it is the responsibility of the contractor to keep all mandatory permissions in place. The railways then acts as a third party. The railways has not taken the matter to court or objected on the BMC taking down the hoardings.”
The civic official said, “Even if the railways issues its own tenders and independently hands over contracts allowing advertisements to be put up in its premises, if they are visible from civic-owned areas, then prior permission from the BMC needs to be taken, following which, railways can issue NOC to the contractor to carry on with the work.”
