Fee hoped to curb entry of beggars on visit visas

KUWAIT: Both the government and lawmakers agreed to accelerate the issuance of a law to impose health insurance on visitors to Kuwait, well-informed ministerial sources said. The sources added that the new health insurance is expected to go in effect within two months and before the holy month of Ramadan, when demand increases for visit visas. Furthermore, the fees should help deter people who take advantage of increased charity during the holy month and come to Kuwait in Ramadan on visit visas to practice begging; an issue that local authorities have been fighting in recent years.

Medicine practice law
Kuwait Medical Association (KMA) conducted a one-month survey on the proposed amendments to the medicine practice law, including Kuwait Lawyers Association and law professors at Kuwait University. KMA Chairman Dr Ahmad Thuwaini Al-Enezi announced coordinating with the Ministry of Health's committee entrusted with setting the new law for the final touches, since KMA is the official body representing doctors and protecting their rights.

Multi-storey parking
Kuwait Municipality's legal department manager Rajaan Al-Ghareeb rejected a proposal by municipal councilmember Abdul Aziz Al-Mejel to allocate land for the private sector to build multi-storey parking buildings in the Capital governorate. Ghareeb said land had been previously allocated and the private sector volunteered to build and maintain the buildings, but has failed to keep its promises so far.

Drainage system
Allowing increasing the height of buildings built along the coastline by 150 to 400 percent will overload the drainage system grids in the southern regions, said Ministry of Public Works (MPW) sources, adding that this will lead to large inflows into the southern purification and sewage water treatment plants, far more than that assessed in the 2002 and 2012 structural plans. The sources added that MPW has set many solutions to absorb the extra influx, including expanding Um Al-Haiman plant, installing a temporary treatment plant in Sabah Al-Ahmad City and cancelling the Riqqa plant.

Low-cost housing
Manager of the low-cost housing project at the public authority for housing welfare Memdeh Qobailan Al-Shemmari said the first phase of the project includes building 9,800 200-sq-m housing units, a 250,000-gallon irrigation reservoir and another for underground water. Shemmari added that the project being built over a total area of 830 hectares 16 km south of Salmi highway will cost KD 68.1 million and house around 88,700 residents.

National grid
The Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) has plans to add 11,000 megawatts to the national grid within the next 10 years in order to meet the growing demand for water and electricity caused by urban expansions, power plant projects' chief engineer Ahmad Qassim said. He added that MEW is currently executing three projects, including the third phase of Subbiya plant with a 931 megawatt capacity, the first phase of Subbiya project with a 250 megawatt capacity and the third phase of South Zour project with a 250 megawatt capacity, which are all expected to be finished during the summer of 2019. Qassim added that documents needed to offer a tender on hiring a consultant for the first phase of Nuwaiseeb project for public bidding during the fourth quarter of 2020 to generate 3,600 megawatts are currently in progress.

By A Saleh and Meshaal Al-Enezi