Delhi’s Outdoor Advertising Policy is the best in India.

The severe hoarding accident in Mumbai has shaken the entire outdoor advertising industry in the country. This hoarding, with a size of 140×140 feet, was erected on railway land, installed with Railway Department’s permission. Mumbai Municipal Corporation had issued a notice for its removal, but the advertising agency did not comply. It sounds strange that a government body couldn’t enforce the law on a private agency.

After the loss of 17 innocent lives and serious injuries to more than 100 people, all civic agencies have sprung into action, blaming each other.

Now, structural engineers are being asked to provide structural strength certificates for all hoardings. In light of this accident in Mumbai, municipal corporations and other departments in other states have also started demanding structural strength certificates from all media owners, whether necessary or not.

In 1997, the Supreme Court had completely banned hoardings in Delhi. At that time, the outdoor advertising business, which had an annual turnover of around ₹1,000 crores, came to a halt overnight, with nearly 40 agencies shutting down and thousands of people losing their jobs. Whereas, no accident had occurred in Delhi due to hoardings. It was a school bus that fell into a canal due to the driver’s negligence. Then, a socialite  filed a Public Interest Litigation against the transport department. During the hearing, hoardings were mentioned in discussion.  People present there, said hoardings are also cause of accidents. Judges agreed to ban the hoardings and order implemented for allover Delhi.

It is surprising that while the Supreme Court oversees the entire country, the order to remove hoardings was issued for Delhi only, not nationwide. At that time, cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Jaipur had hoardings much larger than those in Delhi. If the Supreme Court had considered the entire country back then, such an accident might not have occurred.

After the complete removal of hoardings in Delhi, both advertising agencies and departments like the Delhi Municipal Corporation and Railways faced significant financial losses. In this situation, the Delhi Outdoor Advertisers Association, suggested municipal corporation to file a petition in the Supreme Court, appealing for a reconsideration of the ban. The court instructed the corporation to prepare a clean policy for outdoor advertising to prevent accidents and beautifythe city with no visual pollution. After studying advertising policies of various countries, a comprehensive policy was developed, which did not allow large-sized hoardings on private buildings.l Additionally, the focus was on integrating outdoor advertising with small format outdoor media and street furniture. The results were very positive. The corporations began awarding contracts for bus shelters, public toilets, dustbins, police booths, and benches under the PPP model. This brought revenue to the corporation and saved the government’s crores of rupees that were previously spent on creating and maintaining these public amenities. The corporation also introduced limited numbers of unipole hoardings of restricted sizes.

In the fiscal year 2023-24, the Delhi Municipal Corporation earned ₹400 crores in revenue, making it the number one corporation in India in terms of earnings from outdoor advertising. This was made possible through the mutual cooperation of the municipal corporation and advertising agencies.

Today, there is a need to implement the Supreme Court-approved Outdoor Advertising Policy (OAP) from Delhi across the entire country with integrity. This will only be possible if the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, take a firm stance and ensure the policy is enforced by all municipal corporations, municipal councils, and other local bodies in the country.