Media

Municipality presents the statement of housing and reviews the service recommendations

• More than (121) applications for obtaining residential land and approving 10 thousands of which .
• Referring the issue of families seating on the beaches to the public affairs committee.

Written by: Ibrahim Al Hasani
Photography : Solaiman Al Khusaibi

Municipality, Sunday morning, yesterday, has held its fifth meeting of the first year for the first period headed by Engineer./ Sultan Ben Hamdoun Al Harehi, the head of Muscat municipality and the chairman of the board of directors. The Council has discussed a number of issues scheduled into the agenda including approving his previous minutes of meeting and reviewing the procedures taken for its implementation .

Housing; challenges and plans

Within the session, a visual presentation has been presented about the efforts and plans of the general directorate for planning and survey in the ministry of housing. Engineer. Abdel Qawi Ben Abdalla Al Yafie, the general manager of the general directorate for planning and survey in the ministry of housing who is the representative of the ministry of housing and a member of municipality, has confirmed that the number of applications for obtaining residential lands in Muscat until the end of October 2013 have reached up to (121.303) applications. The applications of women was estimated with 84 % of the total applications while the applications of men was estimated with 16%, however there were (10.724) pieces of land have been distributed. Applications for obtaining residential commercial lands reached up to (1151) applications and 160 applications for industrial purposes.

Engineer. Abdel Qawi has presented the steps that will be taken for preparing the detailed charts where they will be selected more closer to the existing aquifers to be easily connected to the current roads for easy accessing and extending roads to serve them as well as their closure to the location of the network of necessary services .
The general manager of survey and planning also talked about providing the lands necessary for compensations, the cases of residential aids that reached up to (215) in all towns of Muscat during the period from (2008 and till the end of 2012) and the incurred loans which have been taken for constructions which have reached up to (292) loans .

Also Eng. Abdel Qawi Al Yafie indicated the challenges of planning in Muscat. Most of these challenges have been focused on the scarcity of lands due to landscapes and difficult topography of the land which contain mountains, valleys, raceway, sea extensions, the lack of funding for executing some plans, way pavement , booting and the increasing applications for lands . The general manager of planning and survey also indicated some of the solutions and proposals that can facilitate achieving these challenges. He stated that the large areas owned to the governmental authorities shall be reconsidered in accordance with their need and their possible distribution for the land applications as well as preparing and paving the sites of the plans, providing the necessary financial resources which are necessary for preparing the sites of charts, providing them with the road networks, adopting the technique of schematic graduation, preparing the overall national plan " urban development strategy", preparing the chart of using lands and their dependent structural plans and increasing the provision of man power specialized in urban development areas .

Public Affairs

Municipality also reviewed the recommendations of the public affairs committee about the settlement of the subsidiarity and legal subordination for the two villages of (Syiaa and Araqi) either for Amerat or Qurayat wilayats. The committee recommended the administrative subsidiarity to Qurayat because it is the most nearer to it for the purpose of service availability and completion of transactions. Muscat municipality in Amerat takes up providing the services of the municipality for it. The committee in its second clause recommended addressing to Mr. Muscat governorator to clear the issue of the subordination and overlap and deciding their subordination either to the subsidiarity or to the services provided by Muscat municipality.

The Council also discussed the recommendation of the public affairs committee about paving the industrial zone St. at Atakiyah in Amerat Wilayat. The committee recommended addressing to the competent officials in Muscat municipality (the Directorate-General of Roads) for urgent request for approving the necessary budget for developing the industrial zones in Muscat by the Higher Council for Planning .

The Council also reviewed the recommendation of the committee about establishing a central commercial market at Amerat in the west area facing the wali of Amerat office. The committee recommended the specialists in Muscat (directorate general of income and investment) of the necessity of prompting the steps aiming at increasing the space of the land specified for establishing the market. Also the Council reviewed the recommendation of the public affairs committee about constructing baths in the area of Siih Al Dhabi in Amerat. It recommended including this issue within the plan of Amerat municipality and also reviewing the recommendations of developing Muttrah and Amerat states, recommendations of transferring the owners of workshops to the new specified location in Qurayat and paving and decorating the marine street directing to the fishing port in the Wilayat ,which is leading to Dughmur, and the project of establishing a municipal slaughterhouse in Qurayat .

The Council has declared the necessity of providing funds for processing the aquifers of the rain water and providing the protection against the floods within the area of Muscat .

Two Main Memos

The Council has referred two memos submitted by the secretariat of the council, the first about the phenomena of the child begging and it has been referred to the health, environmental and social affairs committee and the second about allocating areas of beaches for the families and it also has been referred to the public affairs committee for more study and setting visions .