DOHA: The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) will spend around QR100bn between 2011-16 to develop world-class urban infrastructure and transportation network, said Eng Nasser Ali Al Mawlawi, the president of the authority yesterday.
Qatar has seen economic development on rapid clip in the past few years but its transportation network is grappling with traffic jams especially during the peak hours.
To tackle it, Ashghal, working under the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning, will develop a state of the art contemporary infrastructure and facilities in the next five years in line with Qatar National Vision 2030, said the Minister of Municipality and Urban Planning H E Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Khalifa Al Thani on the sidelines of the inaugural ceremony of Ashghal's corporate strategy for the year 2011-2016 at the Four Seasons Hotel yesterday.
"This is just one step by one of the public authorities in Qatar to build a truly world-class infrastructure to fulfill the vision of His Highness the Emir. And we hope that we will be able to work out this vision and bring Qatar forward and make the slogan of Ashghal 'Qatar Deserves The Best' a reality," said the Minister.
Asked, how Qatar is planning to overcome the growing traffic menace, the Minister said: "In our previous master plan there wasn't any accommodation of this problem. The traffic jam is not a very old phenomenon in Doha. It's only two to three years old. We're still working on some of our projects such as Salwa road and North road. Our other projects like Lusail and Rayaan project is going to be open soon. These roads have more number of lanes which will reduce the traffic problem substantially." He further added: "Besides that we are also working on other means of transportation like Metro Rail and more fleet of public buses which will definitely take care of the problem."
© The Peninsula 2011
