By Ramesh Mathew
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The services of the free West Bay circular buses, operated by Mowasalat, have been made available to a few more locations from yesterday.
The Blue Line route buses have been extended to the zone housing the headquarters of the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) and the Ministry of Justice building.
At a ceremony held at Khalifa Tennis Complex yesterday, the Ministry of Transport and Mowasalat authorities formally inaugurated the extended services which they said would help reduce congestion in and around key areas of West Bay, particularly in and around the Tower Zone.
Speaking at the launch of the new services, Ministry of Transport official Mohamed Jassim al-Dossari said the decision to introduce new services was taken after the ministry and operators (Mowasalat) had received repeated requests from residents.
“The ministry is going all out to promote the use of public transport in the country so that there would eventually be less congestion on roads,” he stated.
Al-Dossari acknowledged that a shift in the mindset of people to use the public transport instead of their private vehicles had been a challenge in countries such as Qatar where the use of cars is so rampant.
The ministry, he said, was aiming to make public transport in the country more efficient and reliable so that it could be more beneficial to the passengers, whose numbers, are swelling with each day.
Speaking in particular about the extended services in West Bay, the official said their introduction had been necessitated owing to the rise in the number of temporary diversions and lack of parking spaces in most of the office zones in the area.
Technical Affairs director Kristine Fernandez said the ministry was working round the clock towards the implementation of its interim action plan to improve the public bus services and related infrastructure before the commissioning of the Doha Metro.
The West Bay circular buses were introduced in January this year. Run as Blue Line and Red Line services, they are operated from Khalifa Tennis Complex and Q-Post Headquarters. Both the services connect a large number of offices and ministerial buildings located in the area. Page 24
