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Sharjah Municipality move to secure abandoned buildings

The Sharjah Municipality will demolish or enforce the maintenance of as many as 450 abandoned buildings in the emirate in order to protect the public’s health and safety, it announced Saturday.

“We have carried out an inventory this year of all the old abandoned buildings in the city of Sharjah and have recorded 450 houses,” said Sultan Al Mualla, Director-General of Sharjah Municipality. Al Mualla explained that the demolition project is carried out in order to protect the health and the safety of the residents who live close by such houses.

A specialised committee will be responsible in carrying out inspections on a regular basis, which will continue to record further abandoned buildings, and ensure that nobody is squatting in them.

“The abandoned buildings were found to be in different stages of construction, mainly caused by the economic downturn that affected building owners, contractors and consultants. The municipality has submitted a report to the concerned authorities so that this problem can be solved,” he said. Since 2008 until the end of 2011, the Sharjah Municipality recorded 1,187 abandoned houses and carried out the project with the coordination of the Department of Town Planning and Survey in Sharjah, Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority, Sharjah Civil Defence and Sharjah Police.

“In the last two years, we negotiated with the owners of 850 abandoned buildings to upgrade them and carry out the necessary maintenance works instead of having them demolished,” said Al Mualla, in addition to advising them to acquire insurance for the buildings.

afkarali@khaleejtimes.com