Dubai, UAE, 10 April 2018: Consultants and contractors must collaborate to meet the goals of clients, said Kandasamy Anbalagan, Managing Partner, Proleed Engineering Consultants, gleaning from the company’s recent project, the APID @ D3 office fit-out, the office space for the Association of Professional Interior Designers (APID), located at Dubai Design District. The project, he said, had kicked off with the fit-out design in 2016 but had struggled to get through the fit-out permit process and MEP design approvals from Dubai Creative Cluster Authority (DCCA) and D3. “In spite of a simple fit-out design,” Anbalagan said, “the interior design fit-out contractor failed to get through the DCCA comments until early 2018.”

In February of 2018, Anbalagan said, APID approached Proleed seeking assistance to get through the approval process by resolving the DCCA comments. Proleed, he said, owing to experience in handling authority approvals, resolved the issues raised by DCCA and obtained the fit-out permit in a single pass. “The comments were related to HVAC and electrical to meet the base-build requirements,” he said.

“Though the assignment was a small one,” Anbalagan said, “it reflects a common phenomenon of less-qualified ID contractors taking up the entire scope [of work], including MEP, resulting in delays to the end-user.” Anbalagan emphasised that knowledge of MEP systems and approval processes through interactive forums will help resolve such perennial issues_.