(ReliableNews.org) – India has experienced multiple infrastructure collapses over the last year. Recently, another kind of disaster rocked the country. More than a dozen people are now dead.
On May 13, a dust and wind storm slammed into Mumbai, the financial capital of India, located in the state of Maharashtra. The weather caused a massive metal billboard to collapse. The billboard was more than 14,000 square feet, nine times bigger than the maximum size allowed. Further, the company that owned it, Ego Media Agency, did not have a permit to erect the massive structure.
The billboard fell on top of the gas station that it was behind. The massive structure crushed people and cars below it, killing at least 14 people. Seventy-five others suffered injuries in the incident.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) told the agency that owned the billboard to remove all of the others it had up. Maharashtra’s Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced that Mumbai authorities were carrying out an audit of all of the other billboards in the city and removing the ones deemed dangerous.
Shinde also vowed “strict action” would be taken against the billboard owners. He also said that every family who lost someone would receive about $6,000 from the government. Police have already registered a culpable homicide against Ego Media owner Bhavesh Bhinde.
The owners of at least 30 other billboards had not submitted structural stability reports to officials, which is required every two years.
Mohsen Shahedi, an officer with the National Disaster Response Force, said the operation to save the injured and recover the dead was “very challenging due to the weight of the structure and the presence of flammable liquid and gas at the site.” He believed they were able to remove all of the victims.
The billboard collapse comes less than a year after a bridge collapsed in August 2023 and killed at least 26 people.
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