Mumbai hoarding collapse: Two days after the tragic incident in Ghatkopar area, two more bodies were recovered from debris at the hoarding collapse site in Mumbai on Wednesday. This took the total death count to 14 in the incident. Rescue teams had earlier recovered 14 bodies from the hoarding crash site, while 75 persons were injured in the incident, as per officials.
A small fire broke out at the incident site in Ghatkopar during the search and rescue operation on Wednesday morning, but it was immediately doused by the fire tenders deployed there, an NDRF official said. "There was a small fire but it was extinguished immediately," the official said. The search and rescue operation continued even 40 hours after the incident, officials said.
Hoarding was illegal
According to civic officials, the hoarding was illegal which got uprooted and fell on a petrol pump at the Cheddanagar Junction in Ghatkopar amid gusty wind and rain. The Assistant Police Commissioner (Admin) had reportedly given permission for erecting the four hoardings on behalf of the Commissioner of Railway Police, Mumbai, including the one which collapsed on Monday, but no official permission or NOC was obtained from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Mumbai Railway Police issues statement
Releasing a statement on the incident, Mumbai Railway Police said that the hoarding was put up after the permission given by GRP in December 2021. "The incident happened even before action was taken against this 120×120 feet illegal hoarding. "Permission to install the hoarding on the railway police land at the petrol pump in Ghatkopar was given to Ego Media Private Ltd (Bhavesh Bhide) by the then GRP Commissioner Qaiser Khalid in December 2021," the statement read.
The GRP also mentioned in its statement that upon receiving a complaint from BMC, they initiated an investigation into the matter by issuing a notice to Ego Media Private Ltd. However, during this investigative process, the incident accident occurred, it added.
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