Housing maintenance goes digital

TDT | Manama

The Ministry of Housing announced launching a new virtual maintenance request service for the beneficiaries of government apartments and residential units on its webpage.  The new service, the ministry said, forms part of an interactive services package launched last June to enhance the quality of services offered amid the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Sheikh Khalid bin Hmoud Al Khalifa, the Undersecretary of the  Ministry of Housing,  confirmed the new service as a step forward in the ministry’s digital transformation plan to gradually transform all its services online.  He said that a specialised team is working to transfer the services and administrative work, especially those having direct interaction with beneficiaries.

Khaled bin Hmoud said the new service allows beneficiaries to report maintenance of their apartments on the ministry’s web page by filling out the required information and attaching photos.  The system communicates directly to the contractors and the engineers in charge of maintaining the residential area to carry out the required maintenance.

“The next few weeks will witness the second phase of that service, which includes maintenance of residential units,” he confirmed.   The ministry, he said, has decided to start providing the service for ownership apartments now on a trial basis to evaluate and develop the service. 

“The ministry would continue its efforts to develop it eServices, thanks to the government for implementing the best practices to improve the living conditions and lifestyle of citizens and residents.” He said the Ministry started implementing its digitization project back in 2012 by creating a new database for citizens and linking it to the databases of relevant ministries, to automatically obtain the necessary information for citizens.