November 28, 2025: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has introduced a revised outdoor advertising policy for 2025, bringing in tighter regulation on where hoardings and digital advertisements can be placed across the city. The new guidelines, which replace the 2008 policy, ban advertisements on footpaths and the terraces of buildings—locations previously used extensively for hoarding installations. The updated rules also place a uniform citywide cap on hoarding dimensions, limiting their size to a maximum of 40 ft x 40 ft.
In a significant move to curb visual pollution, the BMC has strengthened norms for digital billboards. The luminance ratio of LED displays has been capped at 3:1, while flickering or flashing content has been prohibited to reduce glare and prevent distractions for motorists. LED advertisements will continue to be allowed in indoor commercial spaces such as malls, multiplexes, petrol pumps, and office complexes. A luminance ratio of 3:1 ensures that digital screens are not more than three times brighter than their surroundings, maintaining visual safety in public spaces.
According to the policy preface, “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 well as temporary permissions for the display of banners/boards, etc. These new guidelines supersede the previous guidelines of 2008 and all circulars issued heretofore.”
For the first time, the civic body has allowed a wider variety of hoarding shapes, including V-shaped, L-shaped, triangular, pentagonal, hexagonal, and other non-traditional formats. However, these will require a no-objection certificate from the Mumbai Traffic Police. Advertisements may also be displayed on construction barricades and outer surfaces of buildings under renovation.
The BMC said the policy is based on recommendations from a committee led by former Justice Dilip Bhosale, along with citizen feedback. Oversight will remain with the BMC’s licensing department, which will enforce compliance under Sections 328 and 328A of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888. The full policy has been uploaded on the BMC website and is accessible from November 27, 2025. The civic body has urged advertising agencies to strictly follow the updated norms, formulated after the fatal Ghatkopar billboard collapse in May 2024 that claimed 17 lives and injured over 70 people.
