BY YASIN ABU TAQIU
DOHA: The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) came in for criticism yesterday for focusing too much attention on Doha and ignoring outside areas in its development and maintenance works.
A civic councillor from Al Dhakheera said roads in the township continued to be in a bad shape for years on end and his pleas for repair and maintenance made to the authorities concerned fell on deaf years.
Hamad bin Lahdan Al Mohannadi accused Ashghal of focusing too much attention on the capital city at the expense of outer areas. He said Ashghal should set up offices in all the municipalities to ensure local internal roads are regularly maintained.
The Central Municipal Council (CMC) yesterday hosted senior officials from Ashghal to discuss internal road maintenance works across the country.
Hamad Mohamed Al Tamimi, Director of Asset Management, Ashghal, and Ahmed Al Kubaisi, head of maintenance at Ashghal, fielded questions from several CMC members.
Al Tamimi said Ashghal had allocated QR180m ($49.4m) for internal road maintenance works all over the country and in reply to questions admitted it was not sufficient for the purpose.
Several other members expressed their ire and said they had approached Ashghal for road maintenance in their respective areas and its response was always slow. “The allocated budget for road maintenances is only QR180m this year. It is a moderate figure that cannot meet all repair requests Ashghal has been receiving,” said Al Tamimi.
Some council members reminded Ashghal that road maintenance was earlier a responsibility of different municipalities but at their (the CMC’s) recommendation the responsibility was assigned to it (Ashghal).
Al Tamimi said they had divided the internal road maintenance projects into 8 areas and each area was allocated up to three contractors to implement the projects.
Sheikha Yousuf Al Jefairi, council member from Old Airport area, seemed worried about her election manifesto and said that before the next election of the council next month all the roads she had promised in her election manifesto should be repaired, must be repaired. Al Jefairi is seeking re-election.
At the end of the debate, the CMC recommended that Ashghal should open its offices in all the municipalities so that it can track the condition of internal roads in their jurisdictions and launch repair work.
The CMC also said that all employees of road maintenance departments of the municipalities be, therefore, transferred to Ashghal, and those works for which contracts have already been signed should be finished.
The Peninsula
