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Mowasalat chairman Jassim Saif al-Sulaiti is flanked by Abdulla Nasser and Ahmed al-Mansoori during the briefing. PICTURE: Jayaram |
Announcing this on Thursday, the company chairman and managing director Jassim Saif al-Sulaiti said the first in the series of the UITP ((International Association of Public Transport) meetings in Qatar will be held on November 6 and 7. He said the summit will be held every two years and will be hosted by Mowasalat along with UITP until the 2022 Fifa World Cup, which the country is hosting.
An agreement to host the event was earlier signed between Al Sulaiti and Ousmane Thiam, president of UITP. The Brussels-headquartered UITP has a membership of more than 600 transport companies across the world.
At the briefing, UITP Mena region chairman Abdulla Nasser thanked the forum president Ousmane Thiam for choosing Mowasalat to hold the summit once in two years.
The UITP is the global network of over 3,400 public transport professionals from more than 92 countries. It represents urban and regional passenger transport operators, authorities, the supplying and service industry, as well as a broad range of other mobility actors. UITP gathers and monitors public transport best practices, statistics and mobility indicators.
Speaking later al-Sulaiti said Mowasalat would upgrade its technologies and products in the coming years so that the public transport system in Qatar would attain global standards.
While insisting that Mowasalat has grown into one of the major transport solutions provider of the region, the chairman said the company is not going to sit on the recent laurels and he vowed to continue efforts to take it to the best possible levels, through new solutions and services.
“The public transport provides sustained mobility to the society and it is a key factor to boost every economy. Our social responsibility as the sole public transport provider is to bring environmental justice and to support Qatar National Vision 2030, reducing congestion, pollution and identifying alternate sources of non-renewable energy to deliver new products and services embracing innovation and technology. ”
Also speaking, Mowasalat executive director Ahmed al-Mansoori said “our roadmap of sustained development over the years included several projects on safety, public transport and green initiatives.” Mansoori said the company is set to launch battery-powered electric buses and cars, LPG vehicles, CNG vehicles by the end of this year and water transport by the middle of next year.
“We believe that embracing latest technology in synergy with engineering will benefit our customers and help Mowasalat improve its products and services,” said Strategy & Business Development Director Nasser al-Khanji.
‘Disposable travel cards’ for bus commuters
Mowasalat plans to introduce “disposable travel cards” for the benefit of those bus passengers who do not possess the company’s Smart cards.
The cards are expected to be launched during the Ramadan period. The company chairman Jassim Saif al-Sulaiti said the disposable cards will be available in denominations starting from QR10 onwards.
“Arrangements are underway to ensure availability of these disposable cards of different denominations inside the bus,” he said. There would be cards for 24 hours and also cards with indefinite validity (until its value is fully utilised by a passenger).
With the disposable cards being launched, one need not pay the minimum “no ticket” charge of QR10, for those travelling on buses without the Smart cards.
Replying to another query, the chairman said the work on the bus station in Dukhan would begin by the middle of next year.
The chairman also informed about the company’s plans to launch about 500 public transport and other buses to be operated using Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in the next few years, in its bid to reduce environmental and atmospheric pollution.