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Sixteen schools get over Dh2 million facelift

DUBAI - The Building Maintenance Department at the Ministry of Public Works and Housing (MPWH) completed in July the maintenance and repair works of 16 schools across the country run by the Ministry of Education and Youth at a total cost of Dh2.09 million, while work is still being carried out on other schools.

The maintenance, which is usually conducted during the summer vacations, covered public schools in difference parts of the UAE including institutions in Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman, Fujairah and the Umm Al Quwain.

In an exclusive interview with Khaleej Times, Akil Mohammed Sharif, Head of the MPWH Maintenance Projects Department, said: "There are two types of maintenance applied by the ministry, the Annual and the Comprehensive maintenance. The annual maintenance is conducted on contract-basis , which allows the MPWH to repair any damage that takes place in a school during the academic year through a standby contractor in the MPWH. The Comprehensive maintenance, however, is different because it depends on who will get the tender for reconditioning the schools."

"The maintenance included maintaining the ground, fences and utilities. Other maintenance projects cover maintenance of the structure itself, ceramics, paint, setting up electronic boards, sewerage networks and laying pipelines among others," said Mr Sharif.

He added: "The expenses, in case of an Annual maintenance, depend on the increase of the prices of construction materials, this way we can calculate the expenses of the ministry for each school. Of course it differs when it is Comprehensive Maintenance because who the contractor who wins the tender will be dealing with the expenses. We begin the maintenance of schools in the summer period starting from June, July and August to complete work on all the schools requiring maintenance throughout the country before the beginning of the academic year."

The ministry has spent a total of Dh2.09 million on annual and comprehensive school maintenance projects. The maintenance was conducted by several contractors such as Al Naseem Company, Dubai for Maintenance, Obeid Al Abadi, Al Banai and Rushdi.