New hoarding structure  up at Juna Bazaar Chowk

PUNE:  Almost one year and four months after the tragic accident at Shahir Amar Shaikh Chowk, formerly known as Juna Bazaar Chowk in which four people were killed due to the collapse of hoarding, the Pune Railway Division has started construction of the structure of new hoardings at the same place. 

One pillar of the structure was completed recently with a reduced size from 50 feet to 40 feet.

As per a senior officer of the Central Railway (CR), the incident took place due to human error. “The negligence of the staff deployed by the agency and no skilled and qualified technical people, no safety precautions were taken resulting in the structure collapsing during its dismantling,” the officer said.

“Considering safety purposes, the height of the hoarding is restricted and has been reduced by 10 feet. As per the feasibility, the area of display space has been reduced from 10,100 square feet to 4,800 sq ft,” the officer added. 

The CR had floated a fresh tender in the second week of June 2019 to award permission to advertising firms to instal hoardings at Shahir Amar Shaikh chowk. The total area of hoarding, however, will be less than half the total area awarded in the previous contract which ended in a tragedy. 

“The design of the hoarding structure has been passed by one of the six third party-engineering agencies authorised by Railways including College of Engineering, Pune and Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. The plan was then sent to our Railways’ engineering department in Pune. Once the structures were ready, those were inspected by the department to make sure that they are of the requisite strength and are stable,” said the CR official.

Currently, there are 101 hoardings across Pune Division and contracts worth about Rs 50 crore with six outdoor advertising agencies only in Pune Division of Indian Railways. The Division earns Rs 7 crore per annum by selling advertising rights at 9 zones in the division, a majority of which are in Pune city.

On the afternoon of October 5, part of a hoarding installed on railway land had collapsed on the road, crushing vehicles and motorists who were waiting at the signal for the red light to turn green. Four persons had died in the incident while 10 others had sustained serious injuries.