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Hisham Aljundi
Doha
THE Central Municipal Council (CMC) at its regular fortnightly meeting on Tuesday discussed complaints of Old Airport area's Oqba bin Nafei Street (Street no. 860) residents for not being allowed to expand their buildings vertically.
The CMC was informed that according to the building owners their demand to raise the number of floors had been rejected though they needed it badly.
According to the Council, the building owners also argued that building owners located on another street in the same locality had been allowed expansion.
Subsequently, the Committee of Complaints and Petitions at the CMC urged the concerned authorities to look into the building owners' complaints.
Meanwhile, officials at the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) said that there is a procedure for converting a residential building into a commercial one. According to them, the application has to be submitted to the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) first, which would forward it to them for advice over the feasibility and the impact on road networks as more vehicles will be using them.
For their part, officials at the Public Work Authority 'Ashghal' assured that the MME forwards all such applications immediately to them to check on the effectiveness of infrastructure and sewage networks.
The MME stated that expansion of a building is allowed after a lot of considerations such as planning standards, distribution of population density, metro stations and roads. Population-wise, the street cannot be authorised to have more expansion in its buildings.
Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) said that adding more levels to the current buildings in the area will lead to overloading of the electric and water networks.
