Owners may face demolition bill

By MOHAMMED AL A'ALI

MANAMA

OWNERS of the condemned Kuwaiti Building will either have to demolish it themselves, or foot the bill - unless they win a court appeal against the order. An appeal has been lodged and a verdict is expected within a week, since the situation is so urgent, say sources.

If the order stands, then the court will tell the owners to demolish the 11-storey, twin tower complex in Manama.

But if the owners cannot or will not do it, then the government will and will then send them the bill, said sources.

The national disaster committee, comprising various ministries and government organisations, has already discussed how to go about evacuating and demolishing the 30-year-old building, which houses flats, shops and offices.

But it put off further discussion until the result of the owners' appeal against the demolition order, issued last Monday by the Urgent Matters Court.

It ruled in favour of the Manama Municipality, which sought the demolition order on the grounds that the complex is in a dangerous condition.

"It is expected that the owner of the building will not be able to tear down the building, so it would certainly be the government's duty to do so," said sources.

"The court will ask him to do so, but if he tells them he can't, then the government will come up with a strategy on how to evacuate people and knock down the building."

Area councillor Jaffar Al Qaidoom told the GDN that he had been bombarded with calls from tenants in the building, asking what the next step would be.

"I have promised to meet them during the week to look into their problems, considering many are expatriates with limited finances and finding suitable accommodation for them with the building's rates would be hard," he said.

"It is still early to know what will happen to these families, who will stay put until they are told to evacuate.

"Some are already looking for new apartments, but the poorer ones are still waiting for help from the government."

It is understood that flats in the complex are rented out for BD150 to BD270 a month.

The complex, officially known as Bahrain Centre, is owned by two Kuwaiti businessmen.

There are flats on eight floors of the complex and shops or offices on the first three levels.

The municipality filed the case in July and municipality director-general Abdulkarim Hassan told the GDN two weeks ago that engineers and the Civil Defence and Fire Service had declared the building unsafe.

He said the building was badly damaged by fire eight years ago and there were many cracks in the walls and pillars, with metal bars visible in some places.

Ceilings have fallen down in many places and the air-conditioning system was badly damaged, said Mr Hassan.