Photo used for illustrative purpose.

Mahmoud Muhsen, Staff Reporter

Building permit contracts worth a total of Dhs19.948 billion were registered by Sharjah City Municipality in 2023, according to Obaid Saeed Al Tunaiji, Director General of Sharjah City Municipality.

The visions, directives and support of His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, and the follow-up of Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Sharjah and Chairman of the Executive Council, helped create a fertile investment environment by all standards, he said.

The municipality provided the necessary facilities to investors and speeded up procedures through electronic transformation in many services, he added. It also developed an electronic plan approval service to serve the aspirations of users and customers and provided a new electronic service that allowed customers to apply for the issuance of building permits, he said.

Last year, the municipality carried out a lot of work through its Public Services Department including carrying out 33,500 operations for cleaning and washing guidance signs and traffic signals, supplying 187,838 backfilling loads and 7,011 agricultural soil loads and discharging 3,134 cleaning tasks to remove distortions of the general appearance, he added.

The municipality also exerted strenuous efforts to carry out agricultural projects throughout the year including cultivating new areas, spreading more green areas and planting different types of plants, shrubs, flowers and palm trees, he said, noting that the green areas in the emirate totaled 23.5 million square metres at the end 2023.

The total number of parks reached 73 by the end of last year, occupying a total estimated area of 2.671 million square meters, he said. In addition, the municipality conducted intensive inspection tours of buildings under construction and existing buildings with the aim of ensuring compliance with the required standards, especially safety requirements, he added.

During the past year, it carried out 85,622 visits and issued 57,837 engineering permits, 7,754 engineering certificates, 2,763 completion certificates and 204 demolition transactions.

Through its Health Control and Safety Department, the municipality also carried out 87,000 inspection visits to different facilities to ensure their abidance by the required health and environmental standards and requirements, he said, noting that these included 34,750 visits to food establishments and 26,325 visits to salons and beauty centres.

The year 2023 witnessed a noticeable increase in the number of visitors to medical fitness centres, which attracted approximately 333,000 visitors since the beginning of the year, he said.