A man waiting for bus in hot weather at Al Wakrah- Doha Road yesterday. Pic: Kammutty VP / The Peninsula
As Mowasalat is introducing many facilities making public transport, especially bus service, more comfortable for commuters, the lack of sunshades at some bus stops is forcing commuters to bear the scorching heat.
A number of bus stop platforms in Doha lack sunshades, thus creating trouble for commuters as they are forced to wait for bus under the sun in this blistering summer season.
“I have been waiting for the bus for 15 minutes and due to lack of any shade, I have started feeling heat exhaustion. Waiting for a bus in winter season has never been a problem but during summer, the heat turns it into a painful experience,” said Mizanur Rehman, a commuter waiting for bus at Najma near Alfardan Exchange.
Mowasalat has introduced many modern technologies like the advance payment system, the self-service machines for selling the public transport cards and the SMS notification about the arrival of buses and these steps have also helped make the service more people-friendly but shade-less bus stops are still causing pain for commuters.
At Salwa Road service lane, there is a bus stop after every kilometer but without sunshades. “Since commuters cannot wait for a long time without shades at these spots, they find no option but to hire a cab which also they cannot afford financially,” said Mohan Rai, a worker, who daily travels by Karwa bus.
He said that the condition in Industrial Area was also not different where there were a number of bus stops but no shelters. “Usually those people who travel by public transport cannot afford taxis. As they cannot afford cabs, they bear the heat and try to find some shelter nearby like the shade of a wall or some small tree until the bus arrives,” Rai observed.
He suggested that Mowasalat should install shelters particularly in routes which have maximum number of commuters. Some other areas this reporter visited also have the same problem, like Ain Khalid, Asian Town, Wakra, Najma etc.
“We are not asking for air-conditioned facilities but there should be shades which can save commuters from the scorching sunlight in this hot weather,” Fazal Khan, an expatriate from Pakistan, said.
Due to this problem, sometimes commuters wait for the bus at non-designated places as they find some shade there. They also start waving their hands to the bus driver for stopping the bus in those non-designated spots which is not possible as per the law as the driver is supposed to stop bus only at designated places.
To avoid unnecessary wait in the scorching sun, some commuters use Mowasalat’s SMS service to get real time information about the arrival of buses. The SMS notification provides real time information about specific bus routes. The commuters can send an SMS with a specific bus-stop number to “92112” and Mowasalat provides them information about buses on that particular route, their expected timings etc.
“There is no second opinion that all bus stop spots should have shades to save people from sweltering heat. But to overcome the problem for the time being, I have started using the SMS service and go to the bus stop only near the arrival of bus as no one can bear this temperature,” said Ishak.
