KUWAIT, June 5, (KUNA): It is vital to implement the strategy approved by the cabinet to alleviate the traffic congestion in the country and save lives, Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Planning and Development Fadhil Safar told KUNA, Tuesday.

The minister said the strategy included a call for all state bodies to honor their part in solving the problem, which is affecting every body’s daily life and wellbeing.

He added he is hopeful parliament would approve a government-proposed draft law that includes founding a public authority for transport and motorways, which would integrate all efforts aiming to address the traffic problem.

Factors contributing to the traffic jams are mainly the large number of cars on the road, lack of enthusiasm to use public transport, and a population that is greatly condensed within a limited area that is only 8 percent of Kuwaiti territory.

The Ministry of Public Works, he said, has a three-phase plan to address this issue. There  has been partial success of the first phase so far, he remarked, through widening and adding lanes, creating new exits and u-turns, and laying out lanes for emergency services and ambulances.

The second phase includes developments on ring roads, re-designing cross-roads, removing and re-locating traffic signals, and expanding U-turns under bridges, among other changes, and the minister noted tenders for many of these projects had already been floated and some are actually being executed.

As for the third phase, which is the most critical to alleviating the traffic congestion, he said it involves promoting public transport, the metro project, building new urban areas to alleviate population concentration, and speeding along urban development in general.

The ministry had devised a national all-inclusive strategy to address the traffic and transport dossier over the years 2010-2020 in cooperation with the Interior Ministry and other state bodies. The aim is to create a sustainable transport system and high traffic safety and efficiency standards to reduce the economic cost of traffic problems, and the strategy was approved by the cabinet in October 2010.