The plethora of road constructions and repair works currently going in Qatar has affected traffic and disrupted public transport schedules, according to a senior official of the state-owned Mowasalat. Ahmed Al Ansari, Business Development Director Mowasalat – Karwa, was speaking in response to recent complaints received by The Peninsula on an apparent bus shortage particularly Service 11 and 94. “For Service 11 and 94, a number of road construction projects are along the route. As a result of this all traffic bottle-neck at these areas which causes delays in providing our services,” Al Ansari said in a statement. “Because of the short term nature of the areas of the road being worked on and changing daily we wish to inform our passengers that we are trying our best to work with the authorities to maximise alternative roads and deviate our services where possible but unfortunately, avoidance of delays 100 percent is not possible,” Al Ansari added. The bus shortage nowadays are adversely affecting passengers who depend solely on bus service, with most of them getting late on their work and important appointments. Passengers of bus routes 11 and 94 recently approached The Peninsula airing their dissatisfaction of bus service in the past few days. “Bus 11 usually comes every 15 minutes but now, I would wait for almost an hour, yet no bus comes,” said a senior Indian executive who used to wait by the bus stop near the Gulf Cinema signal. According to him he, along with a dozen more, would patiently wait for bus 11 every day, many of whom would already be late in their work. “This is always the case for a week now. Every day there would be around 10 to 15 passengers waiting for bus 11,” said the executive. He related several instances when after a long time of lingering by the bus stop; two buses would come at the same time. “The problem is the time schedule is not followed,” said another passenger. “It’s only Bus Route 11 which comes late in Najma, other buses come on time,” he added. A passenger of Bus route 94 has also expressed disgust about the inconvenient situation saying he had been experiencing undue delay for his appointments in the past weeks. “I would wait for more than an hour to catch the bus to get into office,” he said. Mowasalat earlier expressed concern on the difficulties endured by commuters through a plan to beef up its bus fleets by 30 percent, though no specific date was given on when the new buses, which include state-of-the-art double-deckers, will start plying Doha streets. http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=November2008&file=Local_News2008112732132.xml

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