05 June 2014
MUSCAT -- Shopkeepers are puzzled as they were asked to change the signboards of their shops twice in less than a year, to be precise, in six months' time. The business houses, offices and other retailers and wholesalers who have the old, billboards on flex sheets atop their premises are supposed to change them into LED name planks, before they could apply for renewal of their registration. Muscat Municipality, as part of its standardising and beautifying the city, has instructed the shopkeepers to switch to 3D signboards last year and has been made it mandatory to get their commercial licences renewed. The business houses that have their frontage facing main roads as well as in the interior roads of Muscat have followed the decision accordingly. But to their surprise, they were served with another notice instructing them to shift to LED signboards without which their licences won't be renewed for the next year.
"I got my signboards changed last year into 3D with projecting letters on it and lights from either side at a cost of RO 2,200. But this year when I went to renew my licence, I was taken aback as I was told to again change it into LED board," a leading businessman on Ruwi High Street told the Observer. But for Sadiq Ali, who runs a stationary supplying chain in the country was quite lucky to have saved some money as he put the change on hold between the transition time. "I moved my shop from Mumtaz area to Ruwi area and as I was about to get a new signboard fitting the bigger new shop, I put on hold to change the new board as I got the news that there would be a change in signboard standards. I was lucky indeed that the new order came recently and I went ahead with the LED signboard," Sadiq said.
When contacted, the Town Planning Authority at the Muscat Municipality official has confirmed that civic body has, as part of standardising the sign boards of commercial establishments with a view to improve the image of the country, instructed all the organisations to switch to 3D and later into LED sign boards recently. Accordingly, several establishments in and around the capital city have changed the same to newer ones with a lot more to follow. A standard LED board would cost the businesses anything not less than RO 250 and according to various businessmen whom we spoke to it will certainly put a hole in their pockets as they will end up paying a huge sum for these boards.
This instruction, according to Ashraf Omer a businessman who has a retail office in Ruwi and a warehouse in Amerat, is lack of clarity in instructing both the shops in the city and countryside to switch to the new rule. "I changed the office signboard in Ruwi to LED but I'm a bit puzzled about the relevance of changing the warehouse signboard which has no commercial activity but just a store for merchandise". The signboard makers in the city are working day in and out to cater to the needs of these business ventures. "We have in the past three to four months made some hundreds of LED signboards with spot lights from either sides of the plank for our customers and now we are making the sign boards with lights from behind," Kurian, a sign boards maker in Ruwi, said. However, the shops in traditional Mutrah souq have been given leeway to continue to hold on to their old sign boards.