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28 March 2024

Abu Dhabi's new signboards rules

Published

Abu Dhabi is slowing turning into a busy workshop for signboards after authorities issued new rules setting specifications for boards of all shops in the emirate.

The new specifications stipulate that the signboard must be 120 cm wide, have the length of the shop’s front and must bear bulging letters.

The Abu Dhabi Municipality issued the new rules last year but they took effect at the beginning of 2012. Shops have been given a deadline of one year until the expiry of their licence after which they must replace their signboards.

Shops which were caught off guard by the rules as their licences were about to expire at the time of the decision have been given an additional year to adapt.

Last week, shops were told they would be given an additional deadline of three months but that the board design must be first approved by the Municipality.

“Any shop that applies for a renewal of its licence must have its signboard replaced otherwise it will not get a renewal,” said Sultan Al Hariri, an owner of a mobile phone shop on Defence Road, the main mobile phone shopping centre in the Capital.

“I have already had my shop signboard replaced…an inspector from the Municipality visited my shop and checked the signboard before I was granted a licence renewal.”

Municipal sources said shop owners must pay fees for the new board before they are granted licence for their business. They said the fees include Dh300 for the first square metre of the board and Dh50 for each metre of the remaining board area.

Scores of shops in Abu Dhabi city, with a population of more than one million, are seen daily having their signboards replaced to conform to new specifications.

Municipality officials said the new rules are part of aesthetic measures intended to beautify the capital within its long-term development plan known as Vision 2030.

The vision involves massive expansions in the capital as it envisages a population of nearly three million at the end of the plan. Besides onshore expansions, Abu Dhabi has been locked in an ambitious plan to develop many of its islands.