Saudi Gazette report

DAMMAM — Prince Saud bin Naif, emir of the Eastern Province, inaugurated the public bus transport service in the cities of Dammam and Qatif. The emir also opened a number of development projects, including the Dammam Corniche.

These projects are aimed at humanizing the cities of the region, as well as raising the quality of life there and facilitating traffic, as part of a package of development projects in the Eastern Province.

The public bus transport contract, amounting to SR149.6 million, was signed with the Saudi Public Transport Company (SAPTCO) for a period of five years. The project would serve a network of different lanes within the city of Dammam, Al-Khobar, Dhahran and Qatif from the main station of the project in Dammam.

Speaking on the occasion, Prince Saud stressed the importance of the public bus transport project and the role it will play in improving the traffic flow and economic development, in addition to other projects that seek to contribute to achieving the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 by developing the infrastructure and economy in the region.

The emir also inaugurated the Dammam Corniche development project on an area spreading over 610,000 square meters, which includes five basic areas for families, celebrations, sports events and recreation, in addition to a public square and an area for cultural events. The inaugurated projects also include a project to develop three main entrances to the Dammam metropolis in order to raise the percentage of green spaces to 80 percent at the entrances to cities. This covers areas of up to 900,000 square meters represented in Dhahran Al-Jubail Road, King Fahd Road, the intersection of King Fahd Road, and Bouhadriya Road.

The public bus transport project includes scheduled and organized trips with a total distance of 400 km back and forth, for all routes, with a total number of 212 stations covering most of the destinations in the cities and governorates, by providing 85 modern buses equipped with amenities and safety. The buses are equipped to serve people with special needs. The capacity of one bus is 81 passengers, and it operates 18 hours a day, from 5:30 am to 11:30 pm, seven days a week.

The bus service costs SR3:45 riyals per trip and it contributes to provide multiple transportation options for the residents and visitors of the city of Dammam and Al-Qatif governorate. It will also help facilitate movement within crowded central areas and destinations. It will reduce the extent of carbon emissions caused by the frequent use of individual vehicles and energy consumption, in addition to easing traffic congestion so as to improve the quality of life, one of the objectives of the Kingdom's Vision 2030.

For his part, Mayor of the Eastern Province Eng. Fahd Al-Jubeir said that the total number of passengers during the last experimental operational period amounted to more than 405,000 passengers, and the number of daily flights executed reached 936, at a rate of 52 per operating hour, and the daily distance traveled reached 30,800 km at a rate of 1,711 km per hour.

He said that the first phases of the trial run of the public bus transport project in the metropolis of Dammam and the Qatif Governorate began on Oct. 1 2022 by the operator while the second phase of the trial operation included receiving passengers on all routes.

The buses have electronic compressors at all doors to alert the driver when getting off. The buses were also equipped with internal and external cameras to monitor the movement of passengers inside, traffic and pedestrians around the bus, as part of the safety measures.