By: Bushra Al-Busaidiyah
Due to its cultural and architectural status, the Directorate General of Muscat Municipality in Grand Mutrah has focused considerably on developing the wilayah of Mutrah in a modern manner while taking into account its cultural and architectural character. Mutrah is one of the important historical cities in the Saltanat of Oman which includes beautiful tourist spots for visitors.
Facilities serving members of the community have also won a share from Muscat Municipality. The Municipality has maintained Mutrah`s aesthetic character in its buildings and developed its waste sector. In addition, it has paved the roads and installed street lights and conduced pest and rodents control campaigns.
Muscat Municipality has also paid great attention to the local souks. It makes continous inspection visits to monitor the sale of foodstuff, organizes and cleans the markets, and deals with the environment after difficult weather conditions.
? Roads and lighting
Mutrah Directorate implemented during the last half of the year (April - September 2018) a project of maintaining its former building by installing interlocking tiles in the front area. It has maintained its all buildings and installed lighting poles in al Mumtaz area along 100 m and in al Wasit area in Muscat with a length of 600 m, in al-Harthy 80 meters and in Al-Khairan 700 meters. For the roads, the directorate has paved 9 km of roads in As`Sifah area, and 1.2 km in Yiti area, plus settling some lands in Ruwi and the landfill in al Wadi al Kabeer.
? Artworks
The technical inspection department conducts field visits to check construction works and other visits to real estates and shops engaging in commercial activities to ensure technical requirements are met.
The department also controls violations and terminate observations made by the society. It should be noted here that the total number of buildings under construction is 453, in addition to 94 licenses for construction with 32 violations recorded.
? Inspection and food control
The Directorate pays wide attention to monitor foodstuff establishments related to public health and makes sure that health requirements are being complied. The department destroyed about (59) kilograms of non-edible fish, poultry and other (275) kg of different foodstuff, plus (91) kg of cooked food during the period (April to Septmeber 2017).
? Licenses and contracts
With regard to municipal licences and leases, the Municipality has registered 6220 residential leases, plus a total of (4336) commercial leases and (268) industrial. The total number of Municipal licenses for vehicles was (996) license, in addition to (2408) new and renewed. From another side, the Directorate recorded during the second quarter of 2018 (7217) residential lease, and (4884) commercial leases, plus (293) industrial lease, all new or renewed. The number of municipal licenses for vehicles was (88) new license and other (880) renewed one, in addition to (385) new licenses for shops.
? Cleaning sector
The Cleaning department has also gained its share. The Directorate schedules periodic visits to implement clean-up and pest control campaigns covering all the geographical scope of the wilayah. The Directorate has also distributed some containers at different locations of the wilayah, and made initiatives to avoid the phenomenon of waste accumulation. It also seeks to provide a healthy environment that is free of pests, diseases or contaminants.
The Municipality calls on the community to sustain these facilities and cooperate immediately with the Municipality to eliminate anything could affect the urban environment of these two wilayahs as they are in the heart of Muscat.