Picture used for illustrative purpose only.

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Based on the directives of Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi to look after the elderly and meet their needs, the Sharjah Municipality announced that the elderly in Sharjah would be exempted from public parking fees.

The elderly would be provided with free annual subscriptions that allow them to park in all the city’s car-parks at all times.

The initiative is launched by the municipality as part of its ongoing initiatives to support the elderly and other groups of the society as well as the emirate’s vision in this field as a model for age-friendly cities, Thabet Al Tarifi, Director General of the Sharjah Municipality, said.

The municipality will begin to provide these subscriptions virtually through its website as part of its bid to enable the public to have easy access to its services and spare their time and effort, he added.

The free subscriptions would be issued for as many as 3,000 elderly on the municipality's website starting from Jan.19 at an estimated value of Dhs7 million, he said.

Meanwhile, Khalid Bin Falah Al Suwaidi, Assistant Director General for Customer Service Sector, explained that this initiative reflects the municipality’s keenness to look after the elderly, meet their needs and overcome all the obstacles that block their way.

Ali Ahmed Abu Ghazeen, Director of Public Parking Department, emphasised that the municipality provides this service to elderly people in the Emirate of Sharjah according to a set of requirements.

As part of these requirements, the applicant must be a citizen of the emirate, is 60 years old or more and should not use the parking lots allocated for people of determination or trading establishments, he added. Each family would be granted only one subscription for one eligible elderly beneficiary, he said.

Recently, Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Chairman of the Sharjah Media Council and member of the Sharjah Executive Council has emphasised that Sharjah made huge strides of development and progress during Year 2020, an extraordinary year.

The year began with Sheikh Sultan approving the annual budget on Jan.12, 2020. The 2020 budget was the largest ever in the emirate’s history, sanctioning total expenditures of Dhs29.1 billion, a 2% increase over the 2019 budget.

The Sharjah Ruler followed it up by approving on Dec.27, 2020 the general budget of Dhs33.6 billion for year 2021, a significant increase of 12% over the year 2020.