KUWAIT CITY, Feb 7: The Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Dr. Rana Al-Fares, during the first meeting of the Kuwait Municipality’s Supreme Committee for Planning, commissioned the Deputy Director General for Urban Planning Affairs and the structural planner Mohammad Al-Zoubi, and Eng. Abdullah Al-Akshan to take an inventory of the land in the proposed new housing areas to be presented to the Council of Ministers in preparation for handing them over to the Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW), reports Al-Qabas daily quoting an informed source.

The source explained that the supreme committee was given a visual presentation by the Urban Planning Supervisor from the Department of Structural Planning Eng. Yousef Al- Azmi on Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh area. Al-Azmi highlighted the problems prevalent in the area, including security, environment and infrastructure problems, revealing that the population density in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh area is much higher than that of Farwaniya and Mahboula combined.

Al-Azmi said the only solution to eliminate the problems in Jleeb Al- Shuyoukh area is to value five plots in it, which contain about 1,400 private housing properties, namely “1, 2, 3, 13, and part of 4”. Then they should be reorganized, replanned and put up for sale in a public auction or a real estate developer must be introduced. There are some investment buildings that will be dealt with depending on how the area is reorganized. The source went on to explain that the value of evaluating the real estate properties in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh area will be higher than the value of its sale. However, the state will profit a lot by eliminating its problems and transforming it into a model high-end area. It can also deal with the huge sums lost due to thefts of public services, including electricity.

The source revealed that Minister Al-Fares has requested the preparation of a report on the subject in preparation for submission to the Council of Ministers. Meanwhile, the source said the committee discussed the issue of bachelors housing, and decided to assign the head of the committee to follow up the phenomenon of bachelors housing and prepare a detailed report that includes the committee’s work statistics, as well as to represent the proposed sites for the labor cities project in Jahra governorate, and assign the legal advisor to follow up the necessary legislative amendments with the technical office. This includes the requirement to reinstate the power supply and remove all violations, prepare the contracts, identify the bachelors, and request the concerned authority in the municipality to hand over the labor cities in Shadadiyah and Mina Abdullah areas. The source indicated that the head of the Advertisement Contracts Followup Committee reviewed the committee’s work.

Furthermore, he said it was decided to assign the deputy director-general of Municipal Affairs of Capital and Jahra governorates to prepare a report on the dilapidated billboards on the Arabian Gulf Street, and coordinate with Kuwait University regarding the study that was conducted on the impact of advertisements on motorists. In addition, the source revealed that the committee decided to submit a memorandum to the Council of Ministers regarding the proposal to transfer the supervision of cleaning activities in Abdali, Wafra and Kabd areas to the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources.