MADINA: The Madina Development Commission will issue a guidebook addressing all construction and engineering procedures, and safety measures for hotels in the city's Central Zone, Muhammad Bin Madani Al-Ali, the Commission's undersecretary general, said Tuesday. He said the move will “unify procedures and improve the criteria and rules of construction, which would facilitate applying quality standards required by relevant authorities, like the municipality and Civil Defense, for investment projects”. The Madina Development Commission, which is chaired by the Emir of Madina Region Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Majed Bin Abdul Aziz, seeks to balance improving construction safety and facilitating procedures for issuing permits by unifying authorities' requirements, Al-Ali said. The Central Zone now contains a series of hotels that apply the highest safety standards, he said. In a workshop Tuesday, specialists and officials discussed how to apply these measures in accordance with new Civil Defense regulations and how to deal with disasters and fires should they occur in hotels. Director of the Civil Defense in Madina Brig. Zuhair Bin Ahmad Subaih said his department has issued numerous procedural regulations concerning the application of safety criteria in the Central Zone's hotels. Civil Defense officials are coordinating with the Commission to launch unified criteria that contain details of construction and technical safety specifications in hotels “to preserve the safety and security of guests”. In the workshop, Capt. Eng. Yaqoub Abdulaal from the Civil Defense presented a working paper about the most significant alert systems required to be installed in the area's hotels, means to deal with dangers and procedures for evacuation of guests if needed, as well as precautionary measures that can be taken to prevent hazards in large buildings.
