Sharjah to stop construction at night

Residents look forward to peaceful nights as emirate vows to allow building from 10pm to 6am only in exceptional circumstances.

The law banning night time construction applies only to sites in residential areas, such as Al Nahda district.

Noisy building sites in Sharjah will fall silent at night from tomorrow after the head of the municipality vowed to enforce a law banning all-night construction. Residents say they can now finally get a good night's sleep.

Hundreds of residents, victims of Sharjah's current 24-hour construction frenzy, complained about being disturbed by noise from diggers, cranes and the warning alarms on reversing delivery lorries on building sites. Dr Taher Salah al Hajj, the director of Sharjah Municipality, said a law issued in 2000 banned construction work from 10pm to 6am. The municipality would now take steps to enforce the regulations, he said.

"What we need to do now is to form a team to follow up this matter and find violating companies to be warned and later fined if they persist," he said. It is understood that rules were rigorously enforced immediately after the law was passed eight years ago, but inspections of building sites at night has been non-existent for many years. Dr Hajj said that in exceptional cases some sites would be allowed to operate at night, such as when workers laid concrete, which in order to set properly required temperatures lower than 40°C.

The law applies only to construction sites in residential areas. Sharjah residents welcomed the renewed enforcement of the regulations. Those who live next to 40- or 50-storey towers under construction said the din was often unbearable and woke up their young children. "Sometimes it's like an earthquake," said Habia Kutty, who added that keeping windows closed had done little to shut out the racket.

Her neighbour, Rajesh Bohara, 28, a Nepali, said: "We are surrounded by three towers under construction and the noise is unbearable at night. Sometimes I am woken up at night and it is a good idea they are enforcing the law so it will not disturb us." At the Nahda Residential Complex, where neighbourhood construction was ongoing, residents were relieved to learn of the ban. "It is really good news and I hope it will only get better now. The noise is very loud if we go out on the balcony," said Minnea Dadda, from India.

"When we first moved here two years ago there was nothing," she said. "The roads were not even in place," she added, pointing to a row of new towers. "The construction went on all the time and now we are used to it. "We keep the windows closed and as a result, we don't hear it. But in the winter, it's nice to get fresh air in but it's too noisy." Rubina Fayyaz, from Pakistan, said the noise from the neighbouring construction site often woke her youngest child.

"The noise at night is really bad and it wakes my three-year-old daughter all the time. "I am glad they are introducing this as it may make a bit of difference," she said. Construction vehicles often jammed the street at night, blocking in cars, she said. "Sometimes, if we have a party or guests who come visit, the machinery clogs up the street and our guests' cars are blocked in and can't move. On some occasions, we cannot get into the car park so we have to park elsewhere and risk getting a parking ticket."

Residents in Dubai faced the same late-night disruptions two years ago. After the midday break rule was introduced - banning construction work during the hottest hours of the summer months - construction work was extended late into the night. Dubai Municipality began night-time inspections in a bid to stamp out noisy sites. Abu Dhabi has similar rules. @Email:[e-mail] @Email:[e-mail]