Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Deputy Minister of Transport for Roads Affairs Bader Bin Abdullah Al-Dalami has said new quality standards will contribute to raising safety on Saudi roads.

Stressing that the maintenance of roads and quality and the provision of safety standards is a top priority for the ministry, he said the country’s wise leadership is keen to provide everything possible to improve the quality of life and maintain the safety of road users.

Al-Dalami made the remarks while participating in the workshop titled “Development of standards for measuring the performance of operation and maintenance of roads”, which was organized by the ministry’s agency for operation and maintenance of roads in cooperation with the agency for planning and information over two days.

Al-Dulami said: “In light of the efforts of the relevant authorities, we have been able to reduce the mortality rate in traffic accidents. The results from 2018 indicate a decrease in the number of traffic accidents deaths by 33 percent.”

This was achieved as a result of cooperation with several other ministries and departments, he added.

“I believe this workshop will raise the level of performance of contracts in order to ensure the maximum benefit from its output for the ministry and maintenance contractors. The contract is a charter that guarantees the rights of all parties. Although contractors do not deliberately wrong, as neither religion nor patriotism allow them to do so, the lack of clear standards and preventive controls can sometimes lead to default,” the deputy minister said, while urging everyone to assume their responsibilities to serve the nation.

“What we have achieved in the last six months of success is a matter of pride,” he said. “But we are still looking forward to more,” he said, expressing the hope that the ministry will achieve greater success in the coming period for residents of the Kingdom and its visitors.

For his part, undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport for the operation and maintenance of roads, Tarek Al-Shami, stressed the importance of quality maintenance in the ministry’s projects. He said the workshop is expected to contribute to the development of accurate standards to monitor the maintenance work and implementation of contracts and assistance in technical analysis. He pointed out contractors in general welcome such steps.

The workshop, which was attended by maintenance managers and contract supervisors at the ministry, discussed over two days the development of basic standards for measuring the performance of contractors, including customer satisfaction, and the percentage of response to the communications. The activities on the second day touched field standards and what the observers should focus on in the field as well as finding the best mechanism to deal with the observations.