T

he South Tangerang municipality administration is expected to tighten control on the presence of giant billboards across the city'€™s main roads after many of the structures collapsed.

'€œThere have been at least five incidents since 2009 but the administration has not taken the necessary measures to prevent such incidents reoccurring,'€ Djaka Badranaya, a local public policy observer told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.

'€œThey should have learned something from the previous incidents and not just wait for people to die.'€

The first incident took place in 2010, not long after South Tangerang was formed, when a giant hypermart billboard fell on Jl. Juanda in Ciputat district, hitting an SUV, a public minibus, a minivan, a sedan and two motorcycles. A year after that, a structure built on the road separator in Jl. Raya Serpong, Bumi Serpong Damai satellite city, collapsed during heavy rain with strong winds.

The incident repeated when a billboard at Victoria intersection fell and hit a resident'€™s house in Serpong. The next incident took place not far from the Victoria intersection, right in front of the gate of the Serpong City Paradise housing complex on Jl. Raya Puspitek.

The last one occurred on June 9 on Jl. WR Supratman, Kampung Utan of East Ciputat, when a billboard collapsed hitting a passing truck containing liquefied gas cans.

Preliminary investigations found that the structures could not take strong winds due to poor design.

According to Djaka, most of the billboards were built by well-known advertising agencies.

'€œIt'€™s possible the administration overlooked the quality of the construction and public safety as this business involves a lot of money.

'€œIt'€™s no secret that the administration officials failed to monitor whether the permits given to the advertising agencies had expired,'€ he said, adding that billboards with expired permits should be removed.

Fahri Aen, 45, a resident of Kampung Utan, said that the latest incident traumatized his family.

'€œWe were sleeping when the billboard collapsed. The noise was horrible and we thought it was earthquake,'€ he told the Post.

A source at the South Tangerang Integrated Permit Agency (BP2T), who requested anonymity for speaking about the issue, said that the permit issued for the recently collapsed billboard had long been expired.

The source said the office had issued a recommendation for removal and that the administration had ordered the public order agency (Satpol PP) to remove it before the incident.

Satpol PP chief Sukanta, however, said that the collapsed billboard was a new structure.

'€œWe have removed illegal billboards from public places for years now. I think the officials at BP2T should get out more often to control and monitor the billboards. They should not just sit behind their desks.'€

Many motorists have complained about billboards, which they said obstructed their view as they were not built in accordance with the spatial planning.

The spatial planning only allows the construction of billboards on two corridors: 14 billboards along Jl. Juanda in Ciputat until Jl. M. Toha, at the border of South Tangerang and Depok and another 13 from Gading Serpong intersection until Bumi Serpong Damai.

Ad spots will be integrated with pedestrian bridges and the size of each billboard may not exceed 5 by 10 meters.

Haris Jaya Perwira, head of the enforcement division with BP2T, said the administration arranged for the gradual removal of billboards violating spatial planning.