KUWAIT: Government agencies held a coordination meeting to address the problem of traffic congestion in its various stages (short, medium, and long term) based on the decision of the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers. The General Directorate of Relations and Security Media at the Ministry of Interior said in a statement that the Director General of the General Directorate of Traffic, Brigadier General Jamal Al-Fouderi, chaired a preliminary meeting at the department’s headquarters in the presence of representatives of the Ministries of Public Works and Education, Kuwait Municipality, the Public Authority for Roads and Land Transport, the Civil Service Bureau, and the Fatwa and Legislation Department.
The meeting is aimed at unifying efforts and moving forward with the implementation of the necessary measures to address the problem of traffic congestion. The officials discussed ways to overcome obstacles with the concerned government agencies and find appropriate solutions (legal, financial, and technical) to achieve the flow of traffic in the country. They agreed to submit a final report to the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers within six months from the date of issuance.
During a meeting held on July 23, the Ministry of Interior submitted a visual presentation on ways to address the problem of traffic congestion, in which the proposed solutions were addressed. It highlighted the 3 stages: the first immediate and urgent, the second medium-term, and the third long-term. The immediate and urgent solutions were the application of flexible working hours and the dissemination of the idea of joint transport for school students (buses), while the medium-term solutions were to develop entrances and exits of some roads.
There were 39 proposals for development, in addition to providing the Public Authority for Roads and Land Transport with the report of the Central Control Department regarding crowded intersections during peak periods. The officials from the General Authority for Roads and Land Transport were urged to take a traffic tour on the Fourth Ring Road to choose the locations of the experimental temporary closure of signalized intersections while retaining the reverse detours.
The intermediate solutions also include emphasizing on the Kuwait Municipality not to license projects and facilities with high density, except after conducting a traffic study and the approval of the General Directorate of Traffic, while linking the requirements of the study to construction and licensing. It comes in line with Kuwait Vision 2035, which includes expanding the roads, increasing them from 6,000 km to over 9,000 km, which will highly improve Kuwait’s status as a financial and trade hub.