Heavy traffic at the newly-opened Jaidah fly-over junction yesterday evening. (Abdul Basit)
DOHA: The city roads are chaotic again with traffic snarls being witnessed during peak hours as people have begun returning from long summer vacations with schools scheduled to reopen on September 9.
Traffic jams are especially long and irritating in the evenings in areas like Bin Mahmoud, near Jaidah flyover, Ramada traffic lights intersection and on C and B Ring Roads.
Traffic is heavy on the February 22 and Al Shamal Road particularly in the morning hours as people are in a hurry to reach their offices.
Early afternoons are equally frustrating times for motorists. The situation on the Corniche road is especially challenging due to the various roundabouts being converted into traffic lights intersection.
The traffic department is making special arrangements to ensure smooth flow of traffic after the schools reopen, having decided to deploy as many as 90 patrols.
A traffic policeman told this newspaper that he and others have been ordered to put in extra hours a day to monitor the traffic flow ahead of schools’ reopening.
Meanwhile, population figures cited monthly by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics suggest that people began going on vacation in June.
The population by May-end was 1.96 million, which dropped to 1.91 million by the end of the following month. In July it dipped to 1.88 million.
And it seems from the figures that most people were out of the country last month, that is, August, since the population count was the lowest at 1.86 million in the month.
Since people have begun returning from their long vacations, the September population figure is sure to be an all-time high.
The Ministry takes the population count on the basis of the people present at the time of the monthly census.
The Peninsula
