Total facilities management services provider, Emrill, has broken its record for completing cleaning activities following the New Year’s Eve celebrations in Downtown Dubai, Emaar’s flagship master community. In the early hours of January 1, 2021, Emrill completed cleaning the surrounding areas of Downtown Dubai, including Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Boulevard and Burj Park, by 1 am and roads were open to the public and traffic by 1.15 am. In 2020, the same operation was completed by 2.30 am.

To ensure the safety of visitors and residents, extra precautions were taken ahead of the New Year’s Eve fireworks display and celebrations. On December 30, the entire area was sanitised with a special focus on the master community and forecasted crowd movement into and exiting from designated viewing and seated areas. Another new measure was the placement of safe distance stickers in all areas open to visitors to ensure physical distance guidelines would be adhered to during the festivities.

Immediately following the celebrations, the entire area was deep cleaned and sanitised again. During the deep cleaning and sanitation activities, all Emrill staff wore recommended personal protective equipment, including hazmat suits and face shields, to minimise the risk of cross-contamination and COVID-19 infection.

Emrill’s existing equipment, such as the CMAR street cleaner and club car-based pressure washers, was modified with special nozzles and a spray system to ensure wider coverage during sanitisation phase.

Gopalakrishnan, Emrill’s operations director, said: “As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the New Year’s Eve celebrations were very different from those of previous years. As a tier-one facilities management provider, Emrill’s standards have always been world-class and we follow BICSc guidelines as standard practice. However, it was imperative additional cleaning and disinfection activities were carried out before and after the event to ensure the safety of residents, visitors and people working in the area. A great deal of planning was done ahead of the event to ensure minimal disruption before, during and after the celebrations.

“We mobilised 310 staff, supervised by 22 managers and supervisors. This represented a 60 per cent increase in the number of on-site staff compared to last year. During the New Year’s Eve activities, we closely coordinated with the client to ensure all areas were kept free of litter and all bins and ashtrays were emptied frequently to avoid fire hazards. Our supervising staff also prioritised the health and wellbeing of Emrill employees and visitors by ensuring all activities were carried out safely and in accordance with our strict COVID-19 protocols. It is a credit to the Emrill team that cleaning operations of a two square-kilometre area were completed ahead of schedule, returning the community to its original state in a record-breaking time.”

Ahead of the event, Emrill staff installed lights and power sockets for the first aid, police, lost and found, and isolation tents. The team also provided the power supply to arches and police cameras. To manage the volume of litter, Emrill placed 100 additional Emaar bins and 120 Dubai Municipality bins in the area. All litter and bins were removed by 3am on January 1, 2021.

Gopalakrishnan concluded: “We successfully completed operations ahead of schedule thanks to the careful planning and dedication of the on-site team. Before the event, we carried out a number of demonstrations to speed up operations so we could meet the client’s targets. We also had regular briefings before and during the event to ensure we stayed on track and were working together as a team to complete work within the required timelines and without incident.”

Breaking its own record, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa kicked off the new year with a ten-second digital countdown followed by an amazing display of fireworks and colour.