Health Ministry, landowners at odds over KFH parking lots

Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — The tussle between the Ministry of Health and land owners over parking lot at King Fahd Hospital (KFH) in Jeddah has deepened with the latter accusing the ministry of using the space without paying for it. Several patients and visitors to the hospital claim that said they could not find enough space to park their cars and were receiving traffic violation tickets for incorrect parking when they had to park their cars haphazardly. And those residing near the hospital are also complaining that they could not access their homes easily due to the large number of cars blocking the roads. Abdullah Ahmed Ashour, an owner of a large piece of land near the hospital which is being used as a parking lot, held the ministry responsible for the traffic mess. He told Al-Madina newspaper that the ministry is taking undue advantage of their leniency toward the patients and visitors in allowing them to park on their lands. "A royal decree was issued about three and a half years ago to purchase these lands but the ministry is still offering a deaf ear," he said. Ashour, once a senior official in the hospital and owner of a piece of land near it, is a representative of other landowners. "I was a senior official in the hospital when its capacity was only 450 beds. Now the capacity has been doubled and the issue of the parking lots still exists," he said. He said even at that time the parking areas were not sufficient. "A land with an area of 6,000 sq. meters was bought and functioned as a parking lot. My late father paid the price of this land which was SR4 million in 1988 on condition that the ministry would repay him but so far it has not," he said. Ashour said when the hospital was recently expanded, the areas of land in front of the emergency ward were taken for the construction of a medical tower. " A kidney center was also constructed on the park which was given to the neighborhood  by the Jeddah Municipality," he added. He said about three years ago he and the inheritors filed a lawsuit either to be given back their lands or be paid their prices. He said in view of the large number of patients and visitors, the hospital now needs parking lots for more than 4,000 cars. "The municipality should not have allowed the hospital to make new constructions without ensuring enough parking areas," he said. He recalled that a committee, which was set up about three and a half years ago to study the situation of the pieces of land surrounding the hospital, recommended a price of SR900 million for these lands which should be left vacant for the hospital to use as parking lots. "The Finance Ministry was every year transferring this amount from one budget to another without paying it to the landowners," he said. Ashour said he and the other land owners blocked all the entrances to the parking lots but they had to reopen them on the mediation of the Jeddah Governor Prince Mishal Bin Majed. He said after high intervention and good offices, they agreed to reduce the price of their plots but the Finance Ministry reduced the amount to SR250 million only. "Now we demand full payment which is SR900 million or that the plots of land be given back to us," he said.