GHMC has No Means to Identify Potential Threats From Hoardings, Trees

Hyderabad: Following the collapse of a massive hoarding in Mumbai that claimed 17 lives last week, and Tuesday’s incident at the Secunderabad Cantonment in which a man died when a tree fell on him, there was a demand for preventive measures to be taken against potential threats in the city.

The hoarding collapse during gusty winds in Mumbai led several people to express their dismay on X (Twitter), demanding the removal of hoardings and advertisements that may cause hazards in case of unsavoury weather conditions.

Deccan Chronicle reached out to Prakash Reddy, GHMC's head of enforcement, vigilance and disaster management (EV&DM) wing and the advertisements unit, for any precautionary mechanism put in place to prevent such damage.

Prakash Reddy said the EV&DM could only look into water-related issues, such as water-logging and desilting of drainage systems. "If a fallen tree has to be removed from the location, people can call us," he said.

On whether the department had made any attempt to identify potential threats such as hoardings, advertisements, poles, that may destabilise and cause damage to life and property, the director said the EV&DM only had the authority to remove trees that had fallen over and the assessment part came under the biodiversity wing of the organisation.

Reaching out to the urban biodiversity department, Deccan Chronicle enquired about the assessment of trees as threats. Responding to this, Dr Sunanda Reddy, chief horticulture officer and additional commissioner, GHMC, said, "We have our field staff verifying this kind of threat and attending to grievances of citizens. A survey is being conducted across all zones to identify if there are any trees that require felling or translocation. Managers have to fill in a table mentioning the location of the tree, including the zone, circle and ward, the name and age of the tree, its condition, whether it needs to be felled or translocated and reasons for the same."

She said she would update when significant data has been collected on the number of such trees in the city.

Prakash Reddy, the GHMC advertisement wing director, denied there were any hoardings within the GHMC limits. "All hoardings have been banned under the Government Order 68 and the ban was also upheld by the court in 2021. There are no hoardings within GHMC limits," he added.

Experts have been impressed upon the need for a safety audit to be conducted in the city. "Not just for hoardings but transmission powers, roof-top advertisements, skeletal structures, buildings that can cause harm to citizens should be assessed," said N.V. Ramana Rao, director of NIT Raipur and former director of NIT Warangal.

Adding to this, architect and structural engineer S.P. Anchuri said, "During windy and rainy seasons, structural analysis should focus on assessing the integrity and resilience of various critical infrastructures. The government bodies and the institutions like JNTU, IITH and other experts must collaborate to study bridges and overpasses, buildings including public and high-occupancy, utility poles and transmission towers, roads and drainage systems, streetlights and traffic Signals. The life of these structures depends on their maintenance. Mainly, vulnerable structures in dense public areas are very important to be inspected and worked upon."

He added that safety is a challenge when it comes to dealing with existing structures of high importance while they are in use. The two main goals of assessment for existing structures are to predict their reliability and to optimise cost. He emphasised that all government bodies must work in tandem to achieve these goals and prevent loss of life and property.