VASCO
A hoarding collapses, traffic comes to a halt, photographs flood social media, officials clear the debris and life moves on. Until the next one falls.
In Goa, this cycle is no longer an isolated accident but a disturbing pattern of warnings, near misses and repeated official interventions.
From the Verna-Airport highway in 2023 to Arpora-Nagoa in 2025 and Tuesday’s incident when a hoarding collapsed near the Goa international Airport at Dabolim, giant advertising structures have repeatedly demonstrated the danger they pose to motorists and pedestrians.
What makes the latest incident more worrying is that it comes despite years of court proceedings and directions aimed at removing illegal and dangerous hoardings from highways. The question is no longer whether Goa has been warned — it is whether the State will act before the next warning turns into a tragedy.
The collapse of a massive advertising hoarding near the Dabolim Airport on Tuesday has once again turned the spotlight on structures that are supposed to sell everything from housing projects to political messages but can, quite literally, become a threat hanging over motorists.
Fortunately, Tuesday’s incident did not turn into a tragedy. But Goa has had enough warnings to know that luck cannot be a safety policy.
The latest incident is particularly worrying because it comes against the backdrop of repeated warnings, accidents and court proceedings over the safety and legality of hoardings along highways and other busy roads.
Previous incidents
In April 2023, a huge G20 flex hoarding along the Verna-Goa Airport highway came crashing onto a car being driven by Roquezinho D'Souza. The occupants escaped injury, but the incident narrowly avoided becoming a major accident. D'Souza and locals had then threatened a rasta roko, demanding immediate removal of damaged and dangerously flapping hoardings.
Two years earlier, in December 2022, Vasco MLA Krishna Salkar had intervened after a hoarding at the IOC junction obstructed visibility and was linked to a motorcycle accident. Salkar had directed the Mormugao Municipal Council to remove dangerous hoardings from traffic junctions and had proposed designated locations for advertisements.
And this is not merely a Vasco story.
In June 2025, a large hoarding collapsed across the Arpora-Nagoa coastal road, blocking traffic and narrowly missing vehicles and pedestrians.
The incident revived memories of Mumbai’s devastating Ghatkopar hoarding collapse in May 2024, which left 17 dead and dozens injured. The Supreme Court too had sounded the alarm during the 2024 monsoon, directing Mumbai authorities to ensure that no untoward incident involving hoardings occurred after taking note of the Ghatkopar disaster.
Directives on hoardings
A court case has been running for a number of years specifically over illegal hoardings.
The Bombay High Court at Goa has been hearing a writ petition concerning illegal hoardings and was informed that several temporary hoardings were routinely coming up adjacent to NH-66 without authorisation from the Highway Administration.
The court observed that NH-66 is a busy highway carrying thousands of vehicles and that hoardings within the line of sight of motorists pose a grave danger and a direct threat to road users.
As recently as March 2026, the High Court had reportedly sought the status of removal of hoardings covered by earlier court orders.
Incidentally, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had issued instructions way back in 2016 to remove advertisement hoardings falling within the Right of Way of National Highways. Yet, 10 years later, such hoardings continue to exist.
Who is responsible?
So where exactly is the breakdown? Is it with the advertiser, the contractor, the agency erecting the structure, the local authority, the highway administration, or the system that permits different agencies to issue permissions without one authority taking responsibility for the final safety of a structure standing beside a highway.
That question becomes even more uncomfortable when permissions, tenders and commercial interests enter the picture.
The issue goes beyond advertising. A billboard is not merely a billboard when it stands metres away from vehicles travelling at high speed. It becomes a road-safety structure.
Its foundation, columns, joints, bolts, wind resistance, installation quality and periodic structural condition can mean the difference between an advertisement being ignored and a serious mishap taking place.
