MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has introduced stringent outdoor advertising regulations designed to minimize glare from digital billboards, prioritizing safer conditions for motorists and pedestrians. Under the freshly unveiled Policy Guidelines for Display of Outdoor Advertising 2025, the brightness of digital displays is now strictly limited to a 3:1 luminance ratio—ensuring no billboard exceeds three times the illumination of its ambient surroundings—to prevent visual disruptions on the roads.
This measure forms part of a broader overhaul that overrides the city’s 2008 advertising framework, introducing permissions for promotional displays on construction barricades and the outer walls of buildings undergoing repairs or development. LED advertisements remain permissible in controlled indoor settings, such as malls, multiplexes, commercial hubs, and petrol stations, where they pose less risk to traffic flow.
The policy’s introductory note, endorsed by the municipal commissioner, outlines its scope: “These new guidelines are aimed at regulating the display of advertisements by means of hoardings, glow signs, bus queue shelters, advertisements on construction sites of buildings, and advertisements during festival seasons. Due attention has also been paid to relatively new concepts such as digital advertising on malls, big shopping centres, national and international banks, commercial institutes, etc, as also temporary permissions for the display of banners/boards, etc. These new guidelines supersede the previous guidelines of 2008 and all circulars issued heretofore.”
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Crafted with input from a panel led by former Justice Dilip Bhosale and incorporating public suggestions, the rules empower the BMC’s licensing department to enforce compliance. Violations will trigger penalties under Sections 328 and 328A of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, targeting illegal installations. The comprehensive document is now available on the BMC website, effective from November 27, 2025.
The initiative accelerated in the wake of the tragic May 2024 Ghatkopar billboard collapse, which claimed 17 lives and left more than 70 injured, underscoring the urgent need for robust safety protocols in urban advertising.
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