The Minister of Transport H E Jassim Seif Al Sulaiti addressing the seminar.
DOHA: Hamad International Airport (HIA) will be officially opened early next year, with an initial capacity of 29 million passengers annually, the Minister of Transport H E Jassim Seif Al Sulaiti has said.
The Minister hinted that Qatar is expected to have 5,000 Karwa taxis and 6,000 buses by 2018.
Once fully operational, HIA will be able to handle 50m passengers, the Minister said in his inaugural address at the first specialised seminar on Professional Qualification Frameworks for Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR) and for the Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) on Thursday.
The event was hosted by Mowasalat, in collaboration with International Road Transport Union (IRU).
“Karwa’s current fleet of nearly 3,000 buses and 2,500 taxis is expected to double in the next five years,” said the Minister.
The fleet apparently includes school buses besides public buses operated by Mowasalat.
Al Sulaiti said the mega port project expected to be opened in early 2016 will be equipped to handle the world’s largest ships with a capacity of more than six million TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit ) per year.
He said the seminar was “a contribution to the UN Decade of Actions on Road Safety with the support of Islamic Development Bank with primary objective to share knowledge and experience in tools and approaches on the performance of transport and best practices for goods and road transport.”
After six years in operation, Karwa Driving School has transformed into a dynamic world-class driving school, offering more than a dozen training courses ranging from learner up to more complex courses in heavy equipment training.
It trained about 7,000 people in 2012 and was the first driving school to be ISO 9001:2008 certified in Qatar.
He said the Ministry will pay attention to considering the introduction of ADR and CPC courses into the transport industry.
Over 80 delegates representing major stakeholders in Qatar and overseas attended in the seminar.
Nasser Al Khanji, Executive Director, Support Services at Mowasalat, said industrial expansion in Qatar has created a great need for dangerous goods which has necessitated more trucks to carry them. The workshop is held to cope with such rapid developments and this fact highlights its positive outcomes.
Al Khanji pointed out that Mowasalat, in collaboration with the IRU Academy, had established the foundations for integrated training to build effective training capacities and realise global leadership in this domain.
Driver CPC (Certificate of Professional Competence) is a professional qualification required by all bus, coach and truck drivers. The CPC course-wide measures are intended to improve road safety and maintain quality driving standards.
CPC is a requirement for any driver of a truck weighing over 3.5 tonnes and any driver of a minibus with nine seats or more.
Driver CPC is obtained easily through theoretical and practical tests, which are followed by periodic training.
The most important thing to know is that professional bus, coach and truck drivers are required to hold a Driver CPC licence in addition to a Qatari driving licence. It is imperative that transport operators are aware of how to comply with the Driver CPC legislation and the correct licensing of drivers, said the official.
The Peninsula
