‘No room for rooftop hoardings: Nidhi Choudhari’

As had been reported earlier by Media4Growth, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has not begun the removal of hoardings atop rooftops and terraces in Mumbai. This was confirmed by Nidhi Choudhari, Deputy Commissioner - Special, BMC in an exclusive conversation with Media4Growth. However, Nidhi Choudhari has maintained that BMC has never been in favour of allowing rooftops sites for advertising, particularly for two reasons – city aesthetics and public safety issues. She added that rooftop hoardings are not there in most other cities, and there is no reason why this format should be allowed in Mumbai. “We wish to make Mumbai organised and safe,” said Nidhi emphatically.

Pointing out that rooftop media is not permitted in the existing ad policy too, Nidhi said that the format is still there only because some of the media owners had obtained a stay from the court on removal of those sites. But that by itself does not mean that rooftop hoardings will be permitted once the new ad policy comes into effect in the city.

Nidhi also said that license for rooftop hoardings are not being renewed by BMC in keeping with the provisions of the draft ad policy that is now pending approval of the BMC Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi. “The policy has been submitted to the commissioner and whenever he calls for the meeting, we will present the policy to the entire team and it will be released once he approves it,” said Nidhi without stating by when the policy would come into effect.