The Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) held a meeting with hoarding agencies and directed its staff to pull down illegal, unauthorised hoardings to prevent a repeat of the Ghatkopar incident. Readers will recall that on May 13, 2024, a huge hoarding in the Ghatkopar collapsed following a cloudburst claiming the lives of 17 people and injuring more than 75 people.

Just like tree audits, it is time for hoarding audits after the weather bureau has alerted to heavy rainfall. The audits, in fact, must be done regularly given our changing and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns. This is also an effective checks network as those booking and putting up these hoardings will realise there is an authority conducting inspection at any time, and they will be under scrutiny.