Ashghal’s Saud al-Tamimi explaining a point at the community meeting held in Al Khor yesterday. PICTURE: Jayan Orma

By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter
The work on the multi-billion Orbital Highway and Truck Route (Phase 4) in the northern region is currently in different stages of construction, a senior official of the Public Works Authority, Ashghal, said yesterday.
“Approximately 42km of the nearly 200km-long Orbital Highway is in the northern region where five of the 22 inter-changes of the route are being built,” senior engineer Saud al-Tamimi, head of roads in Infrastructural Development Affairs at Ashghal explained at a community gathering at Al Khor Sports Club.
The gigantic road project consists of five lanes on either side, of which two are exclusively for heavy vehicles. The enhancement and strengthening of the North Road, which started in 2012, will be completed in the last quarter of the next year, the official said.
The road enhancement project involves the construction of new interchanges at Izghawa and Umm Salal Mohamed areas. Improvements will be made to interchanges at Al Kaaban. The Al Khor road will be upgraded with a link access between Al Shamal Road and Umm Birkah Road.
It was also announced that the work on Al Khor Commercial Street, which is currently underway, will be over by the second quarter of 2016. The work includes rehabilitation and widening of the 5.5km-long existing road to ease traffic congestion experienced in the area.
The sewage network expansion works in Al Khor will get over early next year. Once completed, the project will provide a permanent solution for the problem of discharging sewage water from houses, public buildings and commercial institutions to treatment plants in Al Khor. Almost 90% of the project works are completed so far.
Al-Tamimi said the work on the 12.5km Al Khor bypass project is expected to be completed before the end of this year. It provides for the construction of a temporary road adjacent to the existing road between Al Shamal and Ras Laffan. The road to the treatment plant in Umm Birkah is also expected to be over by early next year, he added.