During a meeting on Tuesday at Asharqia Chamber, the General Manager of the King Fahd Causeway, Fahad M. Al-Daoud, said that the Causeway is witnessing development projects within the strategic transformation plan
Asharqia Chamber held the monthly meeting at its headquarter on Tuesday November 6, 2018, and was attended by the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Abdul Hakim bin Hamad Al-Ammar Al-Khalidi.
The meeting was chaired by Secretary-General of the Chamber, Abdulrahman bin Abdullah Al-Wabel, and was attended by the Vice Chairman of the Board, Hamad bin Mohammed Al-Boali, and members of the Board of Directors Najib Abdullah Al-Sihati, Nasser Abdulaziz Al Ansari, Nasser Rashid Al-Bajash, Badr Muhammad al-AbdulKarim, and Saadoun bin Khaled Khalidi.
The meeting witnessed a significant presence of the business sector as well.
During the meeting, the Director General of the General Establishment of the King Fahad Causeway, Engineer Fahad Mohammed Al-Daoud, stressed the management's keenness to overcome the challenges facing the business sector in what serves the parties and contributes to the development of the service to all the clients of the institution and achieve its objectives in upgrading the bridge services.
Al-Daoud explained that several projects come within the strategic transformation project of the institution that will be in force for the coming period, as it contributes to our ambition to expand services and electronic transformation to accelerate and follow-up movement of beneficiaries and business sector.
Al-Daoud said that King Fahad causeway is a vital project linking Saudi Arabia to the Kingdom of Bahrain. It operates in a unique system, as several government departments operate in one system and in one place to achieve one goal.
He referred to a number of projects currently being held on the island separating the two kingdoms, which will contribute to the development of the mechanism of action and lead to the achievement of the objectives aimed at alleviating a large proportion of congestion.
He pointed out that these projects and the previous initiatives and ideas significantly reduced congestion and contributed to the flow of movement and facilitated the process of mobility.
Furthermore, Aldaoud said that King Fahd Causeway Authority is open to receive any initiatives that follow the developmental approach of the causeway and inspiring ideas from the business sector, which is a key partner in the development process of the bridge services and facilities. He added that the Authority is preparing to provide important electronic services.
He said that the Authority has recently completed the pilot launch of its own electronic application that aimed at communicating with the causeway's customers and users in order to clarify traffic and receive feedback directly.
He pointed out that the application is one of the tools of the institution in communicating with its users through providing them with news, raising their awareness, providing advice and guidance that they must follow.
He stressed the need to be careful to follow up all the new news and causeway projects through the official channels and comes in the forefront of electronic application.
He stressed that some applications and websites do not represent the Authority as an accurate source of information.
Since the beginning of the operation, the Authority has cooperated with the security and procedural bodies in achieving many successes and achieving the first step in overcoming many obstacles and accelerating the movement including the cancellation of paperwork, the integration of the other one taking into account the security and procedural aspects,
And working continuously to raise the capacity of the areas of procedures to cope with these large increases, which exceeded the design rates and estimated the number of 5000 vehicles, up to six times the estimated 31,000 vehicles per day in 2017.
The Authority has developed a specialized department to follow up the traffic movement, at the top of its tasks follow the movement in the bridge around the clock and provide the various departments with the required information and coordination with them to facilitate the daily traffic.
As for future plans, the Authority has started to develop short, medium, and long-term plans to keep abreast of developments for the coming years.
The short plan covers the need for growth until 2024, in the form of operational solutions and design and the addition of new technologies to raise capacity and improve services,
Among the solutions that the Authority seeks to achieve in the short term are the completion of the capacity project of the areas of procedures, which was completed part of the areas of arrival and will be working soon to complete the rest of the areas.
It is would be done by re-planning the area according to available areas through using the design of the fishbone of the cabins procedures, which will contribute to increase the absorptive capacity of these areas without the need for limited expansions of space, and also update the security control systems, and update the tracking system and follow-up daily movement, in addition to introducing modern technologies in toll gates systems, the use of smart phone applications to communicate with the public as the Authority launched an application showing the transit time between the two sides, and the development of vehicle statistics systems and transit rates.
The Authority has started to study investment in various transport areas for the transport of passengers and goods between the two kingdoms with the creation of investment opportunities for developers and contractors such as investing in existing tourism towers on both sides and also contribute to the establishment of commercial complexes in addition to contributing to different roles at the beginning of the construction of the new bridge parallel link between the two kingdoms in order to enhance the role of private sector participation in the management and development of various services.
As part of the strategic transformation program, the Authority has also taken the lead in enabling the movement of individuals and goods by providing an integrated customer experience through seeking to achieve social and economic integration in the region and providing a safe, smooth and sustainable experience in the movement of individuals and goods while strengthening the security role.
The Authority also took into account the care and development of its staff through the Masaruna project, which was a transformation project that was launched on 18 October 2018.
Its strategic values are based on six areas, excellence, innovation, commitment to social responsibility, integrity, transparency, cooperation and focusing on our customers.
In conclusion, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Asharqia Chamber, Abdul Hakim bin Hamad Al-Ammar Al-Khalidi, honored the Director General King Fahd Causeway Authortiy, Eng. Fahad bin Mohammed Al-Daoud, with a commemorative shield.
