The governorate of Damascus has announced the release of a regulatory map for Jobar neighborhood within the coming months, according to the director of planning and organizing in the governorate, Ibrahim Diab.

In an interview with the state-run newspaper “Tishreen” on 30 June, Diab said that the regulatory map for the Jobar area is currently under the study at the High Institute of Regional Planning of Damascus University.

He added that the regulatory plan includes four stages, of which the first one was completed and presented to the governorate while waiting for the second stage to be presented.

According to Diab, the announcement of the regulatory map will be soon and within three months.

The Jobar neighborhood area will have a general regulatory plan, Diab added.

He also talked about the tunnel network in the neighborhood, considering it as a threat to the foundations of the buildings, preventing people from returning to the area.

Diab confirmed that the Jobar area had witnessed significant destruction; however, he did not specify where the destruction happened.

It is worth mentioning that the Jobar neighborhood, east of Damascus, has witnessed heavy fighting between the opposition factions and the Syrian regime forces in the last years, in which the neighborhood was bombed with all kinds of weapons, leading to massive destruction in its buildings.

However, in April 2018, the Syrian regime regained control over the neighborhood, after Russia signed a “settlement” agreement with the “al-Rahman Corps,” by which the Eastern Ghouta fighters headed to the Syrian north.

Since the regime re-controlled the area, it prevented the residents of Jobar from entering their neighborhood, according to Enab Baladi‘s correspondent in the Eastern Ghouta region.

This coincides with the Syrian regime’s talk to present organizational schemes for some regions in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and its surrounding areas.

Meanwhile, Damascus governorate has declared its approval to announce the regulatory plan of the al-Qaboun area and the regulatory map of the Yarmouk Camp in Damascus outside the framework of Law No. 10 of 2018.

According to the governorate’s announcement in the last week, the organizational plan will be announced to the public within a month to receive objections of the rights holders and the people of the region.

Based on statements by former officials in the governorate, the two regions’ organizational plan and map were supposed to be within the framework of law No. 10, which raised wide-scale controversy during the last months, forcing the regime to amend the deadline of claiming rights from one month to a year.

As for Law No. 23 of 2015, it provides for “organizing the process of land preparation for construction, according to the general organizational chart and the detailed regulatory plan in the regulatory schemes approved by one of the two following methods, the owner’s division, and the regulatory planning of the administrative authority.”