The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) announced that it is currently in the final stages of developing the strategy and legislation relating to Electric Bus Project Qatar, which comes as part of MOTC strategy to provide an integrated, world-class, multimodal transportation system that offers safe, reliable and eco-friendly services in line with the pillars of the Qatar National Vision 2030 for social, economic and environmental development.
Minister of Transport and Communications H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti said: “Developing such strategy and legislation comes as an integral component of the plans of our wise leadership with regards to enacting the regulatory laws and policies that ensure the success and sustainability of the projects,” emphasizing that these steps will boost Qatar’s ranking as a pioneer in the field of mass transit with clean energy and as the first country in the world to have an integrated electric bus system.
The Minister said that public buses, government school buses and Doha Metro feeder buses will gradually shift to electric buses, thus achieving the percentage that is required to reduce harmful carbon emissions from buses by the year 2030, in addition to cementing the concerted efforts that aim to protect environmental sustainability.
The strategy targets a shift in 25% of public transit fleet of buses to electric buses by 2022 and the use of electric buses in main services during the FIFA World Cup Championship 2022 to make it the first championship to use electric mass transit buses.
The Electric Bus Project backs the Qatar’s agenda for a green future and contributes to striking an economic-environmental balance in a way that ensures transportation sectors infrastructure projects sustainability, supporting economic growth and making the most out of the natural resources by increasing the revenues of oil and gas sectors and developing the means of transportation through deploying clean and alternative energy in accordance with latest universal eco-friendly systems to reduce carbon emissions and, therefore, create a clean, healthy and safe environment for generations to come.
Source: The Peninsula