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Relief for Residents as New Used Car Site Takes Shape

Dr Salah Al Hajj, Director General of Sharjah Municipality said that despite the current financial crisis which led to the suspending of many construction projects, the municipality will complete the project on time.

The proposed used car market project at Al Ruqqa Al Hamra will be executed within the first six months of this year.

The municipality has just completed the designing of the project and has called for tenders.

The project will cost Dh850 million for the first phase which includes 450 showrooms.

He said the construction of a 4,500 multi-storey car park and the new used cars market in Al Ruqqa Al Hamra aims at solving the problems faced by the residents of Abu Shagara.

The municipality is aware of the problems faced, but it soon become a thing of the past, Dr Al Hajj assured.

He pointed out the permanent solution to the problem is to move the used cars market from Abu Shagara which is over populated with narrow streets to the Al Ruqqa and Al Hamra area.

Dr Al Hajj urged the residents of Abu Shagara to be patient and bear the suffering for some more time, since the problem will soon be resolved.

He added that residents of Abu Shargara will soon be able to park their cars in multi-storey car parks coming up in the Al Qassimyah, Al Majaz and Abu Shagara areas.

Residents of Abu Shagara expressed their concerns that the municipality may delay the construction due to the financial crises.

Suzan Salah Al Deen, a resident of Abu Shagara said there is no space for the residents to park their cars.

These used car showrooms were each given parking spaces by the municipality to park their used cars, but they are not satisfied with the allocated space. They started using the residents’ parking spaces to park their used cars.

“I hope the project is executed on time,” she said. Mohammed Amjad, owner of Al Hikmah Used Cars showroom said that the completion of the new used market is the only solution of protect the business.

“This is a residential area in which more than 350 used cars show rooms are running their business. The residents are suffering a lot and the owners of the showroom are losing profits. The municipality towed away seven of my cars and charged me Dh500 fine and Dh300 as recovery fee.

“I ended up paying a lot of money which made me lose not only my profit, but also my capital invested in starting the business. The cars were parked on the road as the space given to me by the municipality was not enough for display,” he said.

Siddiqi Rahman, owner of Al Taqwa showroom, said: “We do not want to hear that the project of new used cars market is delayed due to the financial crisis.”

“ It’s very difficult for us to keep the business running in this situation, as we are wasting our time and effort, because the little profit we make goes in the payment of fines to the municipality which tows our cars away daily.”

afkarali@khaleejtimes.com

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