The government has cleared a staggering 220 million sq. meters of land which had been encroached upon in the city. Samir Basabrain, chairman of the Encroachments and Land Monitoring Committee, said that the clearing of the land has allowed some government agencies to complete development projects which were delayed because of this situation. Among the most encroached areas and land includes the Hada Al-Sham Road, the eastern forest in Jeddah, wetlands and extension of Falastin Street to the east, in addition to land which belongs to the Industrial Cities Commission in southern Jeddah which was handed over to the committee. According to Basabrain, the Land Control Committee was restructured and all the encroachments on land in Jeddah have been demolished. He said that field supervision teams have been formed which are tasked with monitoring the sites on which encroachments have taken place. Another task of the teams is to take photographs of the land which were encroached on before taking any official action. Saudi Gazette reported last month that the committee had drawn up a new list containing 25 names of persons believed to be guilty of land encroachment. The names were reportedly handed over to the Emir's Office. Basabrain said that the encroachers had tried to deceive committee officials by continually moving from one address to another. “They also attempted to impede the removal of buildings on illegal locations,” Basabrain had said. The Encroachments Committee had presented a previous list of names to the Emir's Office. Earlier, Saudi Gazette also reported that the encroachments committee in the Eastern Province had sent out letters to government departments demanding to know the details of action taken to prevent encroachments reoccurring. The committee had reportedly intervened on several occasions to remove illegal property from government land and told various local authorities to introduce measures to prevent this in future.
