Mosque Parking. Old Airport Area. Photo by: Salim Matramkot © The Peninsula
The General Directorate of Traffic has successfully controlled illegal parking at the premises of mosques by more than 60 percent since the launch of a campaign a month ago.
“After the campaign conducted by the department, the violations have dropped by more than 60 percent. Imams and mosques' neighbours are cooperating with the authorities, which is helping us catch and fine the violators”, Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Radi Al Hajri, Director of Media and Awareness at the Traffic Department, told The Peninsula.
"I don’t know the exact number of complaints but every day we are receiving numerous complaints”, Al Hajri added. He said that earlier, parking in the premises of mosques was allowed for public "but the Mosques Management Department at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs asked us that the parking should be reserved only for mosques and people could use the place for parking only during prayer hours."
"With the coordination of the Mosques Management Department, the Traffic Department started fining motorists who used to park in mosques' premises during non-prayer hours," he added.
About parking in areas which are close to mosques but not part of the mosque premises, he said: "This kind of parking still exists and it is public parking, but it creates problems due to its proximity to the mosques. The department is coordinating with the mosques department in this regard to solve this problem as well.”
Meanwhile, about the change in speed-limits on some streets which makes motorists confused causing violations, Brigadier Mohamed Saad al-Kharji, the Director General of Traffic said: “It is necessary for drivers to reduce speed specially if they are taking a turn or passing through an underpass or before intersection signals because if the speed is 100km/h, they must reduce it to less than 80.”
He further said: “I agree that at some roads like F-Ring Road, the speed limit must be same and we are coordinating with the authorities concerned to make unified a speed-limit.”
Al-Kharji also added that in order to reduce casualties from traffic accidents, the department was working on introducing amendments in the existing law that would make wearing seat belts in back seats mandatory. "We have noticed in many road accidents that casualties and injuries occurred only due to non- fastening of seat belts," he observed.
Talking about areas which witness deadly road accidents, he said:“Industrial Area is the area which witnesses more accidents and it is due to a large number of workers and their lack of knowledge about road use”.
