Qatar’s
comprehensive urban development plan takes into consideration
population growth and development in all fields within the next 20
years, Turki Fahd al-Turki, assistant director of the Urban Planning
Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME), said
yesterday.
The Central Municipal Council (CMC) hosted a number of
Urban Planning Department officials at its bi-weekly regular session
yesterday to brief the council members on the main features of the
country’s urban planning.
Al-Turki explained that the plan is based
on making urban centres in the country in accordance with the national
identity to create a model of sustainable development.
The plan
entails creating a green belt around every city, the distribution of
land plots in a phased manner, and providing various community services
such as health, education, culture centres, parks, shopping centres, and
other services to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants of
the country.
Dr Hossam Ibrahim, an urban planning expert, spoke about
the main features of the plan, stressing that it has been constantly
updated to keep up with the development in reality.
He said that plan includes:
* industrial areas of more than 40mn square metres
* three economic zones of more than 30mn square metres
* eight supply and storage areas of 10mn square metres
* three logistic areas of 14.9mn square metres
* two agriculture complexes 35 square km
* central and livestock markets
* service areas for the Ministry of Transport and Communication, such as bus and taxi stops
* service centres of the Ministry of Interior
* educational services, which include 72 government schools, 40 private
schools, 21 kindergartens, and new sites for the community college; and
* labour accommodation with seven permanent sites and 17 temporary ones.
Ibrahim also said that there are detailed planning standards and conditions, and a comprehensive survey.
There
is also a comprehensive plan to manage all the coastal areas of the
country and a clear strategy to deal with potential climate changes.
The
council also discussed the regulation of residences in the outskirts of
the country and called for more flexible standards and procedures in
order to allow the home owners to continue living there instead of
having to relocate to the cities.
Further, the council issued recommendations based on the complaints regarding winter camping issues.
The
council told the MME officials that the distance between camping areas
and residential areas should be between at least 1km to 2km, and that
the ministry should study the possibility of designating family camping
areas and others for young people.
The council also said that more awareness programmes on safety during camping should be promoted among campers.
