JEDDAH: The Jeddah municipality has allocated about SR5 billion to improve the traffic and transport system in the city through the construction of more bridges and tunnels, Mayor Hani bin Muhammad Abu Ras announced on Monday.
The mayor was addressing the 2011 Saudi Conference on Bridges attended by a number of government representatives, consultants, contractors and researchers.
"We will construct bridges and tunnels in about 40 locations to improve traffic on crossroads and intersections. We have already finished doing this at 10 locations," he said.
Earlier this month, the municipality announced that it would carry out a study to develop an advanced transport system for the city taking into consideration developments likely to take place over the next 20 years.
The municipality has to find effective solutions, both long-term and short-term, for the worsening traffic bottlenecks because of the city's rapidly growing population and increasing number of vehicles.
Abu Ras said Jeddah was facing numerous traffic challenges because of the population growth. "Vehicles make up to 7 million trips a day compared to one million 20 years ago," he added.
He revealed that a committee was formed to find solutions to these problems.
"The committee comprises representatives from the municipality and the ministries of transport and interior who will work together to solve the problems of transport and traffic," he explained.
The mayor said the municipality has made a plan to fulfill the needs and requirements of transport for the next 20 years.
"The plan consists of six main axes aimed at developing a network of future roads, including a comprehensive traffic management system, more public transport and integration between distribution of lands and the urban activities," he said.
Meanwhile, the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries are planning to execute transport projects to the tune of SR637.5 billion over the coming 15 years, including SR405 billion for a regional railway network.
The Kingdom has already started working on four railway projects, including a 1,000-long railway line between Jeddah and Dammam to provide transport to about 300 million passengers and a billion tons of goods annually.
© Arab News 2011
