City Center to reopen on Saturday

The City Center Mall (pictured) will reopen on Saturday as it was closed last Friday reportedly for making necessary installations with regard to fire safety system at the mall following recommendations in this regard by a high-level panel formed by the Heir Apparent His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani recently to probe the fire incident at Villaggio Mall.

Landmark mall official said, “The cinema halls have been closed for the next three days for maintenance. They will reopen on Thursday.” The mall official, however, denied receiving any order from the MoI with regard to closure of the mall for inspection.

Earlier, rumour spread across Doha following messages on Twitter and Facebook regarding the mall’s closure on Monday.

Twitter quoted Qatar Cinema as saying, “Dear fans, we are sorry to inform you that Landmark & our cinema is closed temporarily for safety reasons and it will open soon.” A Facebook message said, “Qatar Cinemas: Landmark closed for safety reasons. The third major mall in Qatar, Landmark, has been closed due to noncompliance to safety standards”.

The messages, however, were soon corrected by Qatar Cinema with the mall officials receiving frenetic enquiries about the mall’s closure from the residents. Qatar Cinema tweeted: “Sorry for the inconvenience. Landmark is open. Only the cinema is closed temporarily.”

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Meanwhile, a City Center official, when contacted about its earlier announcement regarding reopening of City Center on Tuesday said, “The reopening has been deferred till Saturday.” The official, however, dismissed the rumours of the mall having being closed for about a month and said that the mall will “definitely open on Saturday”.

The official also said that the City Center cinema halls will also open to the public on Saturday. According to sources, however, yet another inspection of the mall would be carried out on Thursday.

The City Center was closed last Friday reportedly for making necessary installations with regard to fire safety system at the mall following recommendations in this regard by a high-level panel formed by the Heir Apparent His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani recently to probe the fire incident at Villaggio Mall.

The MoI seeks to ensure installation of a state-of-the-art fire safety system and an effective alarm system with emergency exits of the mall automatically linked to it so that evacuation of people in case of a fire is easy.

source: Al Sharq Newspaper