Municipality issues new construction safety rules
Praveen Menon THE NATIONAL Last Updated: July 29. 2008
The high number of construction workers being killed or injured after falling from buildings has sparked the introduction of a new set of on-site safety rules.
The municipality yesterday announced all building industry firms will have to meet new standards and that any who fail to do so will be fined.
The major area of change is the safety requirement for workers on tall buildings with four chapters of a new rule book dedicated to this area.
Essa al Maidour, Assistant Director General for Planning and Building Affairs at Dubai Municipality said the new manual was launched following “great concern for safety issues and a need to introduce future standards for the same.”
According to municipality statistics, workers falling from high rise buildings constituted forty-five per cent of the 865 accidents that occurred between 2004 and 2007.
Last year alone, nearly 48 per cent of work site accidents were due to workers falling from buildings.
“We have dedicated four chapters in our new safety manual to this particular issue. This is a serious concern for us and we believe that the consultant as well as the contractor is responsible for these deaths,” said Mr Maidour.
pmenon@thenational.ae
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