DOHA: Public transport company Mowasalat, headquartered in Industrial Area is planning to set up satellite stations in Al Khor, Al Wakra and Dukhan to serve the populations in these areas.
The Al Khor facility is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year and the contract for construction will be awarded in two weeks, a senior Mowasalat official said yesterday.
The company yesterday officially opened the Doha branch of its Transportation Training and Development Center (KTTDC) and the driving school in Mansoura.
The proposed satellite stations will include a public bus terminal, workshops for Karwa taxis and buses, petrol stations, drivers' accommodation, among other facilities.
"Currently all the administrative offices, staff accommodations and technical facilities of Mowasalat are based in Industrial Area. We have been planning satellite offices in various parts of the country to provide easy access to the public and the first such facility will be opened in Al Khor this year," Ahmed Bu Sherbak Al Mansoori, executive director of Mowasalat told the media during the opening of the KTTDC branch office in Mansoura.
He said, the company would add 600 new taxis this year, in two phases, to its existing fleet of Karwa cabs taking their total number to about 2,700.
The newly opened driving school branch in Mansoura is concerned with admission, registration and licensing of trainees, registration as well as organizing courses in defensive driving and other training courses on safe driving and emergency vehicle driving.
The customer care provided through the Q-MATIC system at the office is the first of its kind in the country's driving schools, said the official.
KTTDC has a management team and a fleet of training vehicles that can accommodate around 3,000 trainees per year from inside the company and 9,000 trainees from outside.
"We have about 2600 external trainees since the beginning of this year including 1,200 people seeking a Qatari driving licence," said Ahmed Al Ansari, business development director at Mowasalat.
The officials claimed that the pass percentage at Mowasalat's driving school was slightly higher compared to other driving schools in the country, with about 50 per cent of the trainees successfully completing the course.
© The Peninsula 2011
