ONLY government-run firms and publicly traded companies will be granted the franchise to the country’s new taxi company to be launched later this year. A senior Mowasalat official said only government run and publicly traded companies are eligible because Qatar considers taxi services a utility. Taxis are an essential service to be provided to the residents with no profit motive, he said. He said that only pre-registration bids have been invited to gauge interest in starting taxi operations. As one of the prerequisites, the companies should be able to provide a minimum of 400 cars, it is understood. Foreign companies will not be allowed to run taxis. “A number of new companies have been constituted with government participation in recent years and some of them have evinced interest in taxi operations,” he said. The official said bus services to Mesaimeer areas, have been started on experimental basis. “Public transport buses are operating on a number of routes on experimental basis and some of those routes have been rescheduled so services benefit more people,” he said. The Mowasalat spokesman said double deckers were operating on three routes: City Center, Wakra and Dukhan. “However, there could soon be more double decker services on public routes,” he said. The company currently has 10 double decker buses. http://gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=289223&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

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