DOHA: Trucks are still a common sight on most of Doha roads and they still block traffic a month after the opening of the Temporary Truck Route (TTR) on the Salwa-Lusail Road.
The road stretching 41km was opened on December 1 aimed at improving the traffic flow in Doha and diverts incoming trucks transit traffic between the north and south of the country out of the city.
A number of motorists have complained that they are yet to see any major changes with the traffic congestion and that the trucks are still visible almost on every road.
“Trucks are still everywhere and can be seen doing all sorts of violations on the roads in the city,” said Michael Mutebi a car driver in Doha.
“Last Thursday a truck delivering some products near National Exchange in Old Al Ghanim closed down a full lane and blocked traffic for about 30 minutes in the evening rush hours,” he said.
Residents said that they could still see trucks even on small roads in the residential areas as they tried to bypass the traffic on main roads themselves.
Some truck drivers talked to The Peninsula said they didn’t know about the new road that was opened for their vehicles and that they have not been intercepted by any traffic police officer to ask why they were on Doha roads.
Trucks were also still operating on Doha roads because most of them where having their work in the city, like delivering building materials on projects under construction inside the city while others carried goods for sale for ware houses and shopping centres inside Doha.
“It would be impossible for us to do our job and stay in business if we didn’t use the roads in the city. The rules ought to be respected and we try our best but this rule has not been well explained to us,” said a truck driver in Old Airport area who preferred anonymity.
Brigadier Mohammed AbdulRahman Marafia, Director of Traffic and Road Safety, said during the roads launch that an awareness campaign had been launched to keep heavy trucks out of the city and that authority will book trucks plying the road without permission. The fine for this violation is QR500, he said.
Abdullah Saad Al Saad, the Public relations and communication Manager of Ashghal, said that several trucks had started using the road but referred the questions regarding the trucks that continued to ply on Doha roads to the Ministry of Interior and Traffic Department.
“Ashghal was responsible for implementing the project in a proper way and it’s the traffic department responsible to ensuring that truck drivers abide by the rules and use the road or to give out fines for the case of violating drivers,” he said.
Trucks have always been a problem at most Doha roads and the Ministry of Interior had earlier allocated the Al Baraha truck park for all trucks, trailers and heavy machinery and banned them from parking in Doha. However, some trucks can be seen parking in some areas like Old Airport.
Some residents also complained that even the stipulated QR500 fine for violating trucks was too small as some companies will just factor the cost of the fine and the cost of doing business and take the risks of going through the city roads.
The Peninsula
