DOHA: Doha Port will be completely shut for navigation on March 30 next year while major navigational and other operations will start at Hamad Port on December 30 this year.
The Minister of Transport and Communications H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti said this while addressing the opening ceremony of Qatar Transport Safety Forum 2016 yesterday. He further said that the drilling and development works on the Doha Port site will start early April next year, with a budgetary cost of about QR2bn.
Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) had earlier announced that to promote tourism, Doha Port will be turned into a cruise terminal and tourist attraction.
The Minister said that the Ministry of Transport and Communications would execute two main parts of the Doha Port’s development project including the main canal and the port maintenance.
“The body responsible for the construction will be named later on,” he added. The Minister stressed that there was no chance of postponing or delaying the opening of Hamad Port.
Qatar Transport Safety Forum 2016, a two-day event, organised by the International Quality and Productivity Centre (IQPC) started yesterday with the participation of a number of global organisations working in the field of road and transport safety.
The Minister said that Qatar had made great efforts in achieving the United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) including the ones relating to road safety.
“Qatar is one of the best countries in this region in achieving SDGs and all the authorities concerned are making joint efforts in the country, shoulder to shoulder, to achieve road safety related goals of United Nation’s SDGs. The road safety goals will be completely achieved by 2020,” the Minister asserted.
Among others sustainable development goals set by United Nations, a specific stand-alone target had been included in the Health Goal to reduce road-traffic fatalities by 50% by 2020.
The Minister of Municipality and Environment H E Mohamed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi, who was also present at the occasion, said that the government was taking serious steps to raise the safety-level of pedestrians in crowded areas on highways.
15 bridges will be constructed in different areas of Qatar in accordance with Urban Plan for the city of Doha and in coordination with the Roads Department of the Ministry of Transport and Communications,” the minister said, adding that the pedestrian bridges had been designed in a manner to ensure the provision of all amenities to pedestrians.
Secretary of the National Committee for Traffic Safety at the Ministry of Interior Brig. Mohammed Abdullah Al Malki said that Qatar was ranked first in the Middle East and in the 49th position internationally in implementing and achieving SDGs while was standing at .
He said according to 2015 statistics, road accident fatalities in Qatar dropped from 14 per 100,000 population to 7.5 which shows almost 50% decrease. He said as many 92 projects out of total 166 projects of the National Road Safety Strategy had been implemented.
Speaking on future challenges, he pointed to the need to reduce the number of deaths caused by traffic accidents from 227 in 2015 to 130 by 2022 and reduce the rate of annual deaths to six per 100,000 people.
Rashid Taleb Al Nabet, Director Road Transport Planning Department, Ministry of Transport and Communications said that the ministry had achieved several safety-related accomplishments, one of which was the launch of the Qatar Traffic Control Manual and Qatar Highway Design Manual. “The two manuals came among the contributions that enriched transport and traffic safety concepts with a commitment to enforcing the best worldwide criteria and practices in the sector.”
Addressing the Forum, a representative of TRL (the Transport Research Laboratory), one of the leading global centres for innovation in transport and mobility, said that Qatar is currently investing substantial amounts in order to create a world-class, integrated, surface transport system in a relatively short period of time, catering to the needs of its population and visitors to forthcoming major events like FIFA World Cup 2022.
