Members of the Central Municipal Council (CMC) have demanded to be represented in the special committee set up to study the various phases of the Salwa road project and investigate the causes of flooding of newly opened underpasses in the recent rains.
According to local Arabic daily Arrayah, the committee is chaired by HE the Minister of Municipality and Urban Planning Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Khalifa al-Thani with specialist engineers and experts as members.
It is tasked with re-examining the Salwa road project and determining the technical faults in its construction. The committee would take all the necessary steps to tackle these including referring those responsible for the shortcomings to the public prosecution.
Besides their demand to be adequately represented in such a committee, CMC members asked that its findings should be communicated to the public.
CMC members welcomed the committee as a good approach in dealing with similar cases, in particular regarding major public projects. Further, they demanded that an independent authority other than the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) should be established as soon as possible to manage the assets of all the infrastructure projects in the country, in addition to following up their maintenance.
“The issue of the flooding of Salwa road underpasses during the recent rains will be on the top of the CMC agenda at this week’s regular session. We will also issue recommendations in this respect and forward them to HE the Minister of Municipality and Urban Planning,” said CMC chairman Saud al-Hinzab.
He said the rain came in the beginning of summer and was not too heavy. “Should it have taken place in the winter when we usually get heavy showers, what would the case have been? We need to take a decisive stand in this to avoid unnecessary repetition of this unacceptable scenario,” the CMC chairman said.
