Twenty-five projects to help address traffic jams: Official
Pre-project monitoring hinders implementation
KUWAIT: Director of the roads and land transport authority Ahmed Al-Hessan said the authority has 25 projects in progress and that most of them will be inaugurated this year. Hessan added that the most important of those projects are the southern roads linking Mina Abdullah, Wafra and Sabah Al-Ahmad City, as well as the northern ones linking North Khairan, Sabah AlAhmad and the Zour-Wafra road.
Hessan said like other government bodies, the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) has suffered a lot because of lengthy paperwork, adding that the roads authority is trying to overcome such deterrents. “We
Kuwait 390th in global traffic scorecard
are trying to cancel pre-project monitoring, which had been hindering many projects. We are almost the only country in the world to have such a system,” he said, adding that several other projects will commence this year.
390th worldwide According to the INRIX 2017 Global Traffic Scorecard about the most congested cities in the world, Los Angeles topped the list, while Kuwait was ranked 390th, following last year’s ranking of 325. The study also showed that individuals spent around 22 hours a year behind the wheel in traffic jams (ie 10 percent of time daily).
Asia-wise, Kuwait came fifth amongst Arab cities after Riyadh, Dubai, Jeddah and Fujairah, and 22nd in Asia. The study also showed that commuters in Los Angeles spent 102 hours last year in traffic congestions, followed by those living in Moscow and New York, who spent 91 hours, Sao Paulo 86 hours, San Francisco 79 hours, Bogota 75 hours, London 74 hours and Paris (which came ninth) with 69 hours.
Country-wise, the study showed that Thailand topped the list of countries where drivers spent the longest hours behind the wheel, followed by Indonesia, Colombia and Venezuela, while Russia came sixth followed by the US and Brazil. The INRIX study analyzed data collected from 38 countries and 1,360 cities, and estimated the cost of the time wasted by drivers in America as $1,445 annually (that includes their own as well as working time), which adds up to $300 billion in a country that has 211 million vehicles.
Administrative interference
The government performance follow-up agency urged various ministries to counter any administrative interference in services and liabilities with the aim of simplifying procedures, improving government performance and enhancing work efficiency. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry denied any contradictions of liabilities with the Central Bank and the Capital Market Authority, and stressed that the three bodies only cooperate according to a number of memos of understanding signed in this regard.