DM issues ultimatum to remove Ramadan tents

The Dubai Municipality (DM) will demolish Ramadan tents set up in the emirate if the owners do not remove them within two weeks, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Jaber Ahmed Abdullah Al Ali, who heads the Buildings Inspection Section of the Buildings Department at the municipality, told Khaleej Times that the civic body would give two weeks’ time to those who have set up separate tents for Ramadan activities to dismantle and remove them.

“If they don’t do it, then the municipality will do it,” he said.

Hundreds of Ramadan tents are erected across the emirate mainly by hotels, restaurants and residents living in villas. Permission from the municipality and Civil Defence is a must to set up these tents to ensure they comply with the safety standards. Now that Ramadan and Eid celebrations are over, Al Ali said, the temporary tents must be removed at the earliest. “We had to remove some of the tents last year.”

Recently, the municipality also came down heavily on nearly 50 buildings that had set up tents, caravans and patio umbrellas outside villas. Al Ali said the municipality executed 44 demolitions in such cases.

“They had made these additional structures without the permission of the municipality and they did not remove them even after warnings,” he said.”

Ongoing clampdown

Another 67 structures have been demolished by the municipality as part of its ongoing crackdown on abandoned houses, dilapidated buildings and deserted yards that pose safety and security threats as well as hamper the aesthetic views of Dubai.

“A total of 27 of them were multi-storey buildings and we demolished them with the help of private contractors. The rest of them were demolished by the municipality workers,” Al Ali said.

These demolitions were carried out in the first half of the year. “The buildings were demolished due to the lack of response from the owners after proper notification by the building inspection section, in addition to the warning through newspapers and TV and radio channels,” he said in a press statement.

Some of them were used for different types of crimes, delinquencies and harbouring infiltrators and fugitives, he noted. “It (abandoning buildings) is dangerous to the environment and public health and leads to accumulation of waste and infestation of insects and rodents.

In addition, these places are exploited for illegal economic activities like warehouses used for storing unauthorized manufactured goods. Moreover, it hampers the structural plan of urban areas.”

He said the municipality had exempted properties unoccupied by owners due to civil disputes about the ownership. In such cases, the owners are required to submit the documents to support their claims.

“We have exempted a few dozens of buildings from demolition after their owners submitted the proper documents. But, we made sure that the owners closed the entrances to these properties to prevent their misuse,” said Al Ali.

As per the latest survey of the department, 368 more buildings and yards deserted by their owners must be demolished.

The official urged the owners of the remaining abandoned buildings and yards to cooperate with the civic body and to respond to its instructions for maintenance works as well as guarding them with closed entrances.

He praised the role played by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and the Dubai Police with the municipality in the crack down against building violations and thanked the strategic partners from other service departments who helped DM to maintain the aesthetic appearance of the city. He also urged the public to cooperate with the civic body by reporting such violations by calling its hotline: 800900. — sajila@khaleejtimes.com