A Mowasalat public transport bus is seen caught in a traffic jam in Doha. The road works in different parts of Doha and suburbs have adversely affected the bus operations and hit the passengers hard. PICTURE: Najeer Feroke.
    

By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter

The public transport bus services by Mowasalat, completing a decade this October in Qatar, is yet to see significant improvement in connectivity, commuters feel.
Many believe that the bus services, which cover close to 90 routes, are operated in an unscientific manner.
The road works taking place in and around Doha and its suburbs have been delaying most of the bus trips with passengers ending up spending double or treble the time usually taken to reach their destinations.
With Mowasalat's insistence to operate  almost 99% of its schedules from the Central Bus Station in Doha, passengers who want to travel to any place other than those in the vicinity or on the way to the bus station need to take two buses to reach their final destination.
Though passengers have repeatedly pointed out this issue, no action has so far been taken to resolve this anomaly.
For example, a passenger from the Industrial Area who wants to travel to Al Khor, Mesaieed or Wakrah has to come first to Doha to get buses to Al Khor or Wakrah.
Similarly, those who need to go to Shahaniyah or Dukhan from the Industrial Area or Wakrah should take a Central Bus Station bus for the onward journey to the western side, though the road connectivity in Doha and suburbs has shown remarkable improvement over the last two years, especially after the opening of a number of new roads.
"Why should we unnecessarily travel to the bus station located in the crowded Doha city for reaching a place like the Industrial Area?” asked a worker of an electrical firm, whose accommodation is in Umm Slal.
Regular passengers to the Industrial Area are questioning the wisdom of operating all buses to the area through the existing routes of either Musherieb (south)- Jaidah flyover signal-Salwa road-Vegetable Market area or through Muntazah Street, Medical Commission and Abu Hamour.
"Some of the buses from the Central Bus Station to the Industrial Area should be operated through the Airport Road, Najma, Gulf Cinema Signal, Mall Signal, Al-Thumama Signal and further through the existing connection of the F-Ring Road," suggested a Sri Lankan expatriate who runs a hair salon for men on Street 33 of the Industrial Area.
Owing to the road works and resultant traffic jam in Doha, the salon operator starts his journey from Najma before 5.30am to take a connection bus from the Central Bus Station so as to reach the Industrial Area by at least 8am.
The other day the bus he took from Najma to the Central Bus Station took more than 45 minutes to reach near the Capital Police Station.
“Finally, I got down from the bus and walked  nearly 1km from there to the bus station because of the heavy traffic jam,” the salon operator said, echoing the words of many other regular passengers.
The grievances of bus passengers point to the necessity or rather inevitability of starting public transport buses from locations other than the Central Bus Station in Doha to improve the services.
“To attract more people towards Mowasalat's "Grow with Public Transport" campaign the public's connectivity needs to be improved considerably across the country,” a passenger added.

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