A Ministry of Transport official issuing a Karwa smartcard to an employee to formally mark the launch of the cards for travel on West Bay buses.
The Ministry of Transport has issued Karwa smartcards to all employees of the Ministry of Justice, Public Works Authority (Ashghal), Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning and Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy in a bid to promote the use of the West Bay circular bus services.
The ministry hopes the regular use of such cards in buses by employees of such organisations would help reduce the number of single-occupancy vehicles in the area, where long traffic jams have become a daily feature.
The authorities have found the use of single occupancy vehicles is rampant among the office goers of the area and it is one of the main reasons for perennial traffic blocks in and around the West Bay.
With the distribution of the smartcards the ministry hopes more employees working in the complexes located in the area would use the buses for their travels in the coming days, the Ministry of Transport has felt.
Although the bus trip within the area is now given free, recently the authorities decided to restrict the service to only Karwa smartcard holders.
The circular buses were introduced on January 15, 2014 jointly by the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning with the intention of reducing traffic congestion in the area.
The buses are operated as Red Line and Blue Line services, both travelling through different routes in the West Bay area.
While the Red Line starts from the Q-Post Building and travel to many hotels and Ministerial buildings located on the opposite side of City Center Doha, the Blue Line service starts from the Khalifa Tennis complex, and passes through the Exhibition Center (under construction), Tower zone, Ministry of Justice, Ashghal, Sheraton Doha Hotel and City Center Doha. During their journeys they collect passengers wanting to travel back to their originating points at Q-Post Building and Khalifa
Tennis Complex.
