After the inauguration of Hamad Port last month, Al Ruwais Port is likely to become operational as commercial port this year and will also house a market to sell products from neighbouring countries.
Currently, the Ministry of Transport and Communications is working on the second phase of Al Ruwais Port in the north of Qatar. An official yearly-brief of 2016 on the performance of the Ministry of Transport and Communications has revealed this.
“The ministry is currently working on completing the second phase of developing Al Ruwais Port. The process, scheduled to take less than a year, will see the capacity of the port expanded,” the document says, adding that a new storage facility would be built and a market would be established at the port to sell products of neighboring countries.
Last month, the Ministry of Transport and Communications inaugurated Hamad Port after completion of its first phase ahead of stipulated time and with a cost lower than estimated. Hamad Port is now handling all commercial vessels entering or leaving the country and Doha Port is closed to all commercial ships.
Doha Port will continue receiving only cruise ships until March 31 this year as the drilling and development works on Doha Port site will start in April 2017 to make it a leading cruise terminal of the region.
The development work on the first phase of Al Ruwais Port had been started in 2014 under the Emiri Decision No. 76 of 2014 on the operating the port in order to ease the entry and exit of vessels, goods, travellers, import and export, and stimulating commercial exchange between countries of the region.
The ministry’s year-ender 2016 highlights various achievements and ambitious plans of its associated entities like Hamad International Port, Qatar Rail, Civil Aviation Authority, Qatar Ports Management Company (Mawani), Qatar Transport Company (Mowasalat), Communications Regulatory Authority, Qatar Assistive Technology Centre (Mada) among others.
“The ministry remains committed to developing the transport infrastructure and is developing the roads and bridges network of the entire country, as part of a seven-year programme that started in 2010. There are currently 30 projects being implemented to improve link roads, intersections and tunnels,” it adds. In the biannual E-Government Development Index (EGDI), the document says, Qatar improved its position and was ranked as one of the top 10 Asian countries in 2016.
On CRA’s achievements, it says that the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) provided more than 1,350 frequencies and provided around 3,040 permits for radio frequencies. The authority also issued around 270 permits for allowing commercial activities in the telecommunications sector. The report further says that Mada’s ‘Tawasol’ project has created 300 new Arabic symbols to help people with disabilities. Highlighting achievements of Innovative Center for Assistive Technology (Mada), the report says that it has succeeded in supporting 430 disabled students in education and 25 people with employment, and 190 people in the community sector. Mada enables people with disabilities to the information and communications technologies (ICT) that can empower them to excel in all aspects of their life.
After three years of work, Mada center completed the project of developing a set of symbols for alternative communication "Tawasol". The symbols are provided with their text equivalents in Modern Standard Arabic and where appropriate colloquial Qatari Arabic plus their English translation.
“The project created 300 new Arabic symbols to be used by professionals and service providers to help people with disabilities,” the report further reveals.
