KUWAIT CITY, Aug 7: Assistant Undersecretary for the Planning Sector at the Ministry of Public Works and official spokesperson of the ministry Ahmed Al- Saleh confirmed that the Central Agency for Public Tenders (CAPT) has referred the tenders for the maintenance of 18 roads to the ministry. Al-Saleh announced the opening of the second phase of the roads and bridges project leading to the Avenues Mall on Wednesday, in cooperation with the Public Authority for Roads and Transportation (PART) and the General Traffic Department (GTD). He said a committee is currently studying the offers of bidding companies, and then the offers will be submitted to CAPT as per the recommendation of the ministry and PART. The tenders will be awarded to the winning company once approval is obtained from the State Audit Bureau (SAB), followed by the contract signing, he added.

On the Abdul Razzaq Gateway maintenance project, Al-Saleh affirmed the work is ongoing at full speed; stressing will be completed within the next few months and the gate will be opened to pedestrians. He added Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Municipality Affairs Dr. Noura Al-Mashaan has been keen on expediting the completion of the project due to its importance to the mall, as well as removing all obstacles that halted the project for years. “Since assuming the post, the minister has been committed to the implementation of a mechanism to organize the ministry’s works and projects. The pending projects will not be completed without good planning and follow-up,” he asserted.

He pointed out that the halting of this project caused many accidents on the Fifth Ring Road, affirming this will greatly contribute to ongoing efforts to prevent accidents and address the traffic problem that mall visitors usually face. He revealed the fifth bypass bridge in front of the mall is the first exit towards Jahra and a U-turn to Salmiya. He went on to say that in the last nine months; the first phase of the roads leading to the Avenues Mall was opened and this happened within a very short period. He stated that work was expedited with the full cooperation of the contractor after overcoming the obstacles that delayed the project. Moreover, Al-Saleh confirmed the launching of an electronic application that allows officials to follow up orders, especially those related to maintenance contracts.

“In the past, we had many meetings with government agencies and we came up with a new approach in place of the manual approach,” he explained He revealed the electronic application will be available only to officials and employees of the ministry to follow up the construction projects, adding there is another electronic application for following up maintenance contracts. Asked about the Fifth Ring Road Tunnel, Al-Saleh said PART is keen on completing this tunnel; indicating the project site has many facilities and old infrastructure works that are being dealt with, so the tunnel will be operational soon

By Mohammad Ghanem
Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff