Old buildings condemned by the Sharjah Municipality must be dismantled by their owners, or they will have to pay the cost of demolition if the city does it, a senior official said yesterday.
"A new local order authorising the civic body to undertake demolition following three warnings has come into effect, as owners have in many instances failed to repond timely," said Rashid Al Owais, director of the Technical Affairs Department.
"The new order came into effect immediately after it was issued this year, with a number of old buildings being demolished by us in various parts of the emirate."
He said the order will hasten the move to get rid of condemned buildings, marked by the civic body for demolition.
"Owners will either demolish the old buildings or pay the municipality when the demolition is over."To ensure these buildings are demolished following several warnings, Sharjah Municipality has implemented strictly the new local order No 4 for 2003, he reiterated.
The order authorises the municipality to undertake demolition operations if the owners fail to respond after several warnings.
Al Owais said the issue has been pending for several years.
He told Gulf News that 312 buildings, commercial, residential and industrial, had been listed for demolition since 1998. Some 264 buildings were dismantled, including 71 in 2002. Most of them were demolished by their owners, except a few which were removed by the civic body.
On the increasing number of buildings which are not demolished despite being marked some four years ago, Al Owais said: "We have repeatedly warned owners to bring down these old buildings. Unfortunately, we did not receive any response.
Most owners were also out of reach as we did not have updated contact addresses. Such response has prompted us to enforce the new order this year, compelling owners to remove their old buildings."
Removal of old buildings has been a challenge for the civic body for a long time. These buildings become eyesores and garbage dumping areas.
With the exception of 71 buildings demolished in 2002, an average of 30 buildings were demolished each year since 1998. In some areas, some buildings remained untouched for four years after being marked for demolition in 1998.
A crackdown was launched last year following the civic body's efforts to speed up demolitions.
The efforts resulted in the 71 buildings being demolished in 2002. This year, following the new local order, demolition of condemned buildings are expected to be speeded up. Larger demolition operations will be seen throughout the emirate, he indicated.
Miky Aroula, manager of a Sharjah-based demolition company which is demolishing a 19-storey building in Al Majarrah area, said: "The building was marked for demolition in 1998. It has been standing here till February 2003, when we started demolition."
Aroula said the company had taken the contract to demolish the building from the civic body two-and-a-half months ago. This year, he said, four buildings are under demolition in Sharjah, of which three contracts were taken from the municipality and one from the building owner.
Such buildings also pose a wider public nuisance. For instance, another four-storey building in Abu Tina area, earmarked by the civic body for demolition, has been standing there for a long time, with even an board showing it will be demolished sometime soon.
Mohammed Abdullah, a shopkeeper at a supermarket in the next building, said: "The residents vacated the building long ago, with power and water supplies having been cut before 2002. The building has stood in this manner for the last two years. The owner is from Abu Dhabi.
"We do not know when it is going to be demolished, and for two years we have been expecting demolition work would start - but nothing so far.
"The area has meanwhile become a favourite dumping ground, and a place for the public to store things. Car cleaners also store their cleaning equipment such as dusters and buckets there."
Gulf News
