AMMAN — Coming with a price tag of JD8 million, the Uqba Bin Nafi Plaza project
in downtown Salt has shifted from an investment to a burden on the Greater Salt
Municipality.
اضافة اعلان
Nearly seven months into its
provisional pilot launch, the municipality is racing to find solutions to the
challenges halting the project's formal launch, Al-Ghad News reported.
The project, which includes
shops, parking lots, public areas, and children's playgrounds, was launched
under an initiative to develop downtown Salt. This was nine years ago.
It remained indeterminate
until mid-June 2022 when Salt Mayor Mohammad Hiyari announced the project's
opening to residents and merchants for temporary use.
A municipal official, who
spoke under the condition of anonymity, said the entire project had become a
significant burden on the municipality. He said this is due to problems with
the contractor related to the need to correct a few essential concerns.
The project's expected
revenues are approximately JD130,000, he said, which poses an additional
challenge, as the cost of management and operations is approximately JD300,000,
causing a budget deficit.
This puts the municipality in
a financial stalemate, he said.
"During the current
period, the municipality is trying to find solutions that will save the plaza
so that it becomes feasible or at least not incur further financial
losses," he added.
The project has 27 shops and
150 free parking spaces, he said. One of the options the municipality is
considering is to impose parking fees to garner some financial returns. He
added that free parking is available in an area near the plaza.
Vendors renting shops in the
plaza are another area of struggle, said the source. Due to delays in opening
the plaza, leaseholders have had to leave due to inability to pay rent, causing
a backlog. This, he added, was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
No set launch dateThe source added that the
municipality could not set a date to officially launch services at the plaza,
especially not before all obstacles had been addressed.
However, the source did not
rule out the possibility of the opening happening in the next coming
months.
The municipality, he added,
is working on every front to open the plaza. It is working with both official
stakeholders and private sector representatives and investors, he said.
The Uqba Bin Nafi Plaza
project is part of the downtown Salt development project. It faces a financial
shortage that threatens the completion of the second phase after the government
stopped funding it in 2016.
The first phase of the
development project was launched in August 2014, aiming to "revive
economic, social, and cultural parts of the historic city center by focusing on
the heritage and cultural value as a tool for linking tourism development to
economic development and social development".
The project's second phase
was supposed to see the opening of shops and efforts to attract
tourists.
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