Oman will soon have a Unified Addressing System or a home address system, according to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

The government agency has started an initiative to establish the same and coordinate with emergency services and other government departments. 

Address database

The Unified Addressing System aims to develop an address database for all buildings, residents and offices through a Centralised Addressing Database. Diagrams included in the presentation by NCSI show a resident card unique number linked to a physical address.

Additionally, the system will also be integrated into various government applications. According to NCSI, physical street signs will be assigned and completed by municipalities at a later date.

NCSI is developing the system in coordination with the Muscat Municipality, Sohar Municipality, Dhofar Municipality, Ministry of Regional Municipality and Water Resources, Ministry of Housing and Royal Oman Police.

Vital role

“An addressing information plays a vital role in most transactions, provided by thousands of different organisations—from registering to vote, collection of waste, delivery of social care, connection of utility services, quotation for insurance, delivery of packages, allocation of school places and most crucially responding to emergency situations where time really can be a matter of life or death,” NCSI said by releasing details of the system on its official website.

“A geographical overview of addresses is required for a large area, such as urban planning, land administration, utility planning and maintenance, emergency services, logistics and deliveries etc,” NCSI added. Currently, Oman does not have a unified addressing system across the country; however, some of the other GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) cities either have the system or are in the process of implementing it.

Sunilkumar KK, a businessman in Muscat, said having a Unified Addressing System will make doing business in Oman easy.

Save time and money

“Currently, we struggle a lot to locate our clients’ offices in both government and private sector.

“If the Unified Addressing System is implemented, it would help us save time and money,” Sunilkumar said.

“We had heard that such a kind of smart address system is currently being implemented in Abu Dhabi. My partners in Abu Dhabi say it minimises travel time a lot,” Sunilkumar added.

Source: Timesofoman