After Ghatkopar incident, Central Railway orders structural audit of hoardings in its zones

Mumbai, May 13 (PTI) In the wake of the hoarding collapse incident in Mumbai's Ghatkopar that claimed the lives of 14 persons, the Central Railway (CR) authorities have directed all its five divisions to conduct an audit of all such structures in their respective zones, officials said.

CR's chief spokesperson Swapnil Nila said the engineering department has been asked to carry out the audit of all the hoardings from the stability point of view.

"A detailed structural audit is being carried out and will be completed shortly as per the instructions of Ram Karan Yadav, the general manager of the Central Railway," he said.

He also said the civic body carries out structural audits of the hoardings in railway premises at regular intervals.

"Structural audits for the hoardings are being carried out regularly," Nila said.

The Central Railways' Mumbai division has 138 hoardings erected at 99 different locations. The maximum size of these hoardings is 100 x 40-feet and the tenure of the contract varies from five years to a maximum of seven years, the official said.

Fourteen persons were killed and 75 others injured after the huge billboard at Chheda Nagar in Ghatkopar collapsed due to gusty winds on Monday evening. The hoarding was standing on the land of the Government Railway Police (GRP).

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who visited the incident site, ordered a structural audit of all hoardings in Mumbai. PTI KK NP