DOHA: All activities related to used cars, including their sale, auction, registration with the traffic department and insurance will be shifted to a mini-city being developed near Rawdat Rashid off Salwa Road.
To be known as ‘Motor City’, the project will cover a massive 1.15 million square meters of space, Barwa Real Estate group, the developers, announced yesterday.
The proposed city will house used car showrooms, garages, an auction area for sale of used cars, labor camps for workers of these facilities, entertainment facilities as also a racing track, Barwa officials announced yesterday.
More than third of the total area of the Motor City will be reserved for used car showrooms, while another 29 percent will be dedicated to entertainment facilities. And the remaining will house outlets selling car spare parts, servicing facilities and insurance, etc.
The project entails investment of around QR1.5bn, and will house various services for used vehicles such as used-cars services, car workshops, maintenance centres, and warehouses for used cars as well as rent-a-car services.
Speaking to mediapersons at a press conference held yesterday, the company said it has already signed agreement with Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning. “Under this agreement Barwa will rent land extending over 1,150,000 square meters to develop and run this distinctive project,” said Ahmad Abdulla Al Abdulla, Acting Group CEO, Barwa Real Estate.
Services such as offices for Traffic Department, Technical Testing, offices for Ministry of Interior, Civil Defence, Ministry of Municipality, banks and car insurance office will also be available at the location. Moreover, the project will contain commercial units, a hotel, staff accommodation for families, workers accommodation, a driving school, in addition to other necessary facilities.
“The project, which will be called Motor City, comes under Barwa Real Estate’s social and economic contributions to the Qatari society as it will enable traders to start their businesses using commercial units with encouraging prices,” said Ahmad Abdulla.
“Barwa Real Estate will develop the project over four years divided into three phases, the details and budget of which will be revealed later after signing the consultancy agreement for the project and after approving the final proposal of the project by all relevant bodies,” he said.
The group will benefit from the project through the BOT system (build-operate-transfer) for 30 years. An advanced electronic system will be used to connect cars data to Hukoomi website and consequently connect this data to the Ministry of Interior. This system will be available for download on different mediums, websites and smart phones.
The stone laying ceremony of the project will be held in December this year while other details will be released early next year. The Peninsula
