Sunday 17 / November / 2024
Muscat: Residents and citizens living in Muscat will not have to waste their time anymore in settling permits and violations with the Muscat Municipality as the Muscat Municipality today launched a new app to deal with such tasks.
The app ‘Baladiyeti’ will enable them to access a range of services online, including renewal of rental contracts, renewal of municipal licenses (for companies), renewal of construction permits, reservation of parking spaces, payment of parking fines, applications for job vacancies, in addition to other electronic services.
Abdullah Al Saway, Senior Internet Specialist at the Muscat Municipality, told the Times of Oman that citizens and residents of Muscat would not have to visit any office anymore to settle their contracts or pay fines for violations.
“You can do all your transactions online through the app, so there is no need any more to visit any of the Muscat Municipality offices,” he said.
Al Saway said the unique feature of Baladiyati is that it gives a personalized overview of all requested services.
“The good thing in this application is that it has a dashboard, which gives information about all the services that you receive, such as rental contract, tickets etc. It will tell you the status of these services,” he said.
In addition to paying parking violations through the app, users can buy a parking ticket in paid-parking areas.
“There is no need to use coins anymore as you can use this application to receive your parking ticket,” he said.
Al Saway explained that payment can be made through the app just as it is done for other online transactions.
“There is no need to create a new account with us. You can use either your debit card or credit card,” he said.
He added that ‘Baladiyeti’ is a new version of an earlier app ‘I-Muscat’, which contained fewer services and was not connected to the PKI. After installing the app from one of the app stores, the first thing new users should do is to register their mobile number in the app. That will enable one to find all the necessary information.
“It will help the user identify himself, and will thus make it possible for us to give him access to his rental contract, building permits, parking violations and parking permits,” he said.
Another feature of the app is “Jobs,” where Omani jobseekers can view available jobs in the Muscat Municipality as well as in other authorities registered with the Ministry of Manpower.
“It will help them see if the job is suitable for them or not. We will take their ID card and will verify their qualifications. If it is the kind of human resource we want, we will accept the request,” he said.
Al Saway assured that the app is safe to use. “Before launching the app, we sent it to ITA [Information Technology Authority], which has a special team that checks all apps, and they gave us the green light. As everywhere in IT, there is no guarantee, but we try to minimize the risk.”
The app was cautiously welcomed by the public, as the Times of Oman found out.
Adil Rashid from Pakistan said it will be especially useful for paying parking violations.
“I faced such a situation before and I think it’s a very good initiative. Apart from that, it will be useful for permits that I need for my company. It’s an excellent app,” he said.
Saud Mohammed from Oman said “This is a very good development. God willing, I’ll download it and use it,” he said.
Some said the app will be especially useful for business people.
Alex Rego from India said the app will save him a lot of time. “It’s much easier to pay tickets online instead of having to go to some office. This app is very good for us. It will save us much time, and we will not have to leave office,” he said.
Mini R. from India said she is looking forward to using the app. “It’ll be very easy, comfortable and fast. No need to waste our time,” she said.
Others were more cautious. Johnny Ilyas, a Pakistani national, said he will “definitely” download the app, but was not very convinced about its usefulness. “I’ll first have to start using it before I make up my mind about that,” he said.
