SCDF seeks court order

QX179R SG

IN AN unprecedented move, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) has applied for a court order to stop business temporarily on the first floor of the popular Mustafa Centre in Little India.

The SCDF is concerned about overcrowding, and its move follows a record number of safety violations at the shopping mall in recent years.

A pre-trial conference for the application was heard by District Judge Imran Abdul Hamid yesterday.

The hearing went on for slightly over an hour before being adjourned to next Wednesday.

The 24-hour store will remain open for business in the meantime.

Approached after the hearing, prosecutors and Mustafa's lawyers, Mr Mirza Namazie and Mr Bala Chandran, declined to comment.

-- ST

QX179R SG

SCDF carries out another round of inspections at Mustafa Centre

SINGAPORE: It's back to business as usual at Mustafa Centre after a prohibition order that was issued on its premises was lifted on Saturday morning.

But officers from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) conducted another round of inspections on Saturday.

SCDF officers arrived at Mustafa Centre at 8am. That's when the court order imposed on the 24-hour shopping complex was lifted.

It was ordered to stop all retail activity on level one of its main building from 4pm on Thursday after the SCDF raised concerns about overcrowding.

And as staff got back to their routine, further inspections were carried out for less than half an hour.

The officers declined to give comments.

But with this handshake, it seemed they were satisfied with efforts to address the safety issue.

Shamim Ahmad, manager, Building Maintenance & Safety, Mustafa Centre, said: “We have widened some of these spaces and we have shown them and we have tendered some actions plans to them and they are very satisfied and we look forward to work with them.

“I have employed some extra people to control the overcrowding. I hope this will work.”

The management of Mustafa Centre was not able to disclose or give a rough estimate of the losses suffered during the 40-hour closure of its first floor.

But it said it will continue to step up on crowd control measures to ensure a better shopping experience for customers.

But are customers themselves, seeing any difference now?

One customer said: “Now I find it more spacious to walk the passageway and we feel more safe.”

The shopping centre will still make use of this monitoring system to keep track of the number of people in the premises.

Staff will also do a manual head count every 15 minutes during peak periods.

The management said shoppers may be denied entry once there are about 380 people on the first floor.

There are also plans to make better use of a bigger shop space in the future.

Norrdin Mustaffa, business development manager, Mustafa Centre, said: “We are going to remove certain departments to extend our merchandise to a new outlet.”

The new extension is expected to be completed in August.

In the meantime, SCDF will continue to monitor the situation at the premises.

- CNA/vm