The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has built 207 bridges and flyovers and 143 tunnels on roads across the country in past nine years. The authority also developed a total of 2,131km pedestrian and cycling tracks between 2013 and 2022.
To enhance greenery in the country, Ashghal built 11,000,000 sqm green areas and planted 900,000 trees and developed 2,732 km long rainwater drainage system.
President of Public Works Authority (Ashghal) Dr. Eng. Saad bin Ahmad Al Muhannadi has said that the huge infrastructure development project of road network helped reduce travel times from 45 minutes to 10 minutes for some destinations.
Speaking to Qatar TV on Saturday, he said during the past five years, Ashghal provided services to 26,000 land plots within citizens’ subdivisions. “Currently 36,000 land plots of citizens are being developed in a number of areas. About 48,000 plots of land for citizens in 36 areas will receive services over the next five years, bringing the total, during the ten years, to nearly 110,000 land plots.”
He said measures were taken to reduce disturbances caused by development work in residential areas. “In 2017, Ashghal launched the 'rehabilitation' initiative, and under the initiative so far we have rehabilitated more than 300 local factories,” said Al Muhannadi.
He said reliance on the local product has increased from 26% in 2016 to 75% during the current year, and the investments pumped into the local sector amounted to more than QR3.2bn in 2022. To a question about job nationalisation, he said as a result of the training programmes and the Qatarisation plan, over the past four years, Ashghal was able to double the percentage of Qatarisation in Ashghal, reaching more than 135% compared to previous years. “The engineering cadre has increased by approximately 160%. There are more than 530 Qatari male and female engineers and approximately 600 male and female administrators,” said Al Muhannadi. He said Ashghal manages over 330 projects, and the number of defaulting contractors ranges from 15 to 20 contractors only which is not more than 5% of the projects managed by the Authority.
Speaking about humanisation of cities, Ashghal President said: “This concept has been applied during last two years to give priority to the human being enabling them to walk, use bicycle or public transportation — metro or buses.” In this context, he said that two projects have been started, namely the Doha Central Project from A Ring Road to the Corniche, and the second is the West Bay project.
“In these areas there were previously car parks, but these parking lots have been replaced by wide pedestrian pathways linking one area with others through safe walkway dotted with trees.”