Hotels implementing safety measures

A number of commercial complexes and hotels in Doha are either putting in place the revised safety guidelines of the Directorate of Civil Defence or are exploring ways to implement them on their premises. Business sources  said  that some of the budget hotels had already closed for carrying out their plans to implement advanced safety solutions. When inquiries were made at some of the hotels, their operators corroborated that they had temporarily stopped their operations to implement “effective safety solutions” in their buildings and they would resume work only after getting clearance from the Civil Defence Department. “We are half-way through implementing the new safety guidelines and once they are completed, the Civil Defence Department will be informed. We could resume only when they issue a clearance certificate,” said the manager at a hotel. Staff at another hotel said additional safety guidelines were being implemented in their workplace even though the hotel was still operating. A city hotelier said they were carrying out works to provide a direct automatic alarm link to the Civil Defence directorate, as has been stipulated by the authority a few days ago as part of its new safety guidelines.   Similar replies were received from some of the new hotels in the Old Salata where a large number of budget hotels are located. Civil Defence personnel have intensified inspections of restaurants which are more vulnerable to fire than other establishments because of the nature of their operations. A restaurateur said Civil Defence personnel had instructed many eateries in the last few days to upgrade their safety plans. When contacted, some builders and architects said that at least a few major malls in the city needed to undergo a major revamping on account of their poor building plans. “There are hardly any emergency exits in some of them and there are even malls without proper stairs,” said an architect. Builders also felt the need to implement more safety measures in many multi-level buildings, including residential accommodations and schools. As per the construction guidelines in the country, there should be at least a minimum of one stair within every 15m in multi-level school buildings. “Unfortunately, a number of schools do not follow such crucial safety guidelines,” said an architect. “There are even schools having no properly-built corridors,” he added. The architect also felt that the country already had in place very stringent building safety guidelines. “However,  many builders are violating the guidelines and are still successful in getting mandatory certification for their operations.” The authorities have started to strictly enforce safety requirements at residential and commercial complexes following the deadlyVillaggio mall fire that claimed 19 lives. City Center will open after mandatory inspections The operators of the City Center Doha said yesterday that the shopping complex would resume operations only when the mandatory inspections were completed by the Civil Defence Department. A mall official said inspections were being carried out by officials yesterday. “Only when the inspections in the entire complex are completed and  approval is received from the authorities concerned, the centre will be open to the public,” said a spokesperson . “At the moment we cannot say when the complex would be ready for reopening. It could be tomorrow or a day later,” said an official. Asked if it meant the centre would be ready along with the car park where massive revamping works were on for sometime now, the spokesperson said the mall would be ready for operations once it had received approval from the Civil Defence.  Similar replies came  from the security personnel at the  complex. Owing to the temporary closure of the City Center from Friday, there are reports of a sharp increase in the number of visitors to at least two other malls, located outside the Doha city limits. Malls in Muaither and Rayyan areas also have  been receiving an increased number of visitors.