By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter


Some residents of the Industrial Area, particularly those living between Street 28 and Street 31, have complained that the new free “hop on, hop off” bus service of Mowasalat does not adequately cover the area where they stay.
This, along with a reported rerouting of some of the older services, is causing a lot of difficulties to blue-collar expatriates living in the said area, it is learnt,
The “hop on, hop off” service was launched last month by Mowasalat and the buses operate within the Industrial Area between 4am and 10pm. A total of 13 buses have been deployed for the service.
Following the introduction of the new facility, some of the older services - running between Doha Bus Station and the Industrial Area - were rerouted. Those buses now do not ply in many of the areas that the new “hop on, hop off” services cover, say residents of the area.
This has particularly affected commuters living between Street 28 and Street 31, as the old services have stopped going there and the new, free ones are “highly inadequate”, it is understood.
As a result, the affected residents have to look for alternative transport to reach places such as Asian Town and the roundabout near Safari Hypermarket along Salwa Road for their onward journey to different parts of Doha and elsewhere, say sources.
When asked about the matter, an official in the operations department of Mowasalat said no one had informed them about the poor availability of “hop on, hop off” buses in areas lying along the said streets.
The official, however, promised to look into the issue at the earliest.