Portion Of Mustafa Centre Shutdown
Thursday, 8th April 2010
The first storey of Mustafa Centre was ordered by subordinate court to stop business temporarily for 40 hours on its first floor. The shutdown is after the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) court order of fire hazard. This temporary closure will give the store time to review and implement more stringent means of crowd control. The Mustafa Centre, which sees up to 10,000 shoppers daily, has expanded certain areas in its premises by removing shelves so that more shoppers can move around, on top of other measures to control "human" traffic.
According to SCDF, the first storey of Mustafa Centre can only accommodate 431 people. The management of Mustafa has installed a numbering system showing how many are entering the store by the minute. When it exceeds the limit prescribed by the SCDF, crowd controllers prevent more from going in. In the past three years, Mustafa Centre has chalked up 37 fire safety violations and was recent fined S$17,000.