KUWAIT: A scene from yesterday’s meeting of the Municipal Council’s reform and development committee.

KUWAIT: The Municipal Council's reform and development committee recommended forming a team including elements from the council, Kuwait Municipality and relevant government bodies to accelerate the execution and handover of government housing projects, study various impediments and report on them so that proper solutions could be made.

During a workshop on housing projects and procedural municipal obstacles held yesterday in the presence of the Director of the Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW) Bader Al-Weqayyan, Kuwait Municipality Director Ahmad Al-Manfouhi and other officials, the committee discussed how to overcome such obstacles. Weqayyan said that there was a time limit for contractors to commence working on any project after signing the contract. He also stressed that contractors usually refuse taking responsibility for any projects until all obstacles are removed and overcome.

He added that upon Central Tenders Committee (CTC) recommendations, bids for Mutlaa City, which is a comprehensive one including road, rain, sewage, water, treated water and telephone grids, would be opened on April 24. Weqayyan added that relevant authorities were currently working on removing obstacles hindering the construction of South Saad Al-Abdullah housing project and stressed that the project would not be called off.

Manfouhi said that the South Saad Al-Abdullah obstacles would be removed according to a schedule set by the concerned authorities. "The municipality scrap area will be removed by the beginning of 2017," he underlined, noting that the project would provide 25,000 housing units.

Also speaking at the workshop, Municipal Council member Abdullah Al-Kandari said that both sites were not fit for human dwelling because of the presence of high-voltage power lines and 42 artesian wells that need to be radically tended to before turning the site into a residential area or city.

Notary publics

Seventy-three notary publics were yesterday sworn in before the Minister of Justice and Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Yaqoub Al-Sane to join the ministry's real estate registration and attestation department. The event was also attended by the justice ministry's assistant undersecretary for real estate registration and attestation affairs Mohammed Al-Hammad and other top officials.

By Meshaal Al-Enezi