By Jaber Al HARAMI http://thepeninsulaqatar.com
DOHA: With more than 14,000 labourers currently working in the ambitious Msheireb Downtown Doha project and their number expected to double in the coming phases, top priority is given to safety and “dignity” of the workers, according to a senior official of Msheireb Real Estate Company.
The project is on track, with the first three phases to be completed by 2016, said Engineer Abdullah Hassan Al Mahashadi, Executive Chairman of the company.
“Currently, there are 14,300 workers involved in the project, but the number may reach more than 28,000 as the project progresses. We have completed 72 million working hours, 68 million of which are free of any accidents or injury. There are 715 buses to transport the workers,” he said, talking to The Peninsula and Al Sharq during a site tour.
He said the company was highly concerned about the safety and security of the workers not only in the work site but even during transportation. “We are implementing the Karama (Dignity) initiative launched by the Qatar Foundation recently to deal with labourers and respect their dignity. We make sure there is nothing that goes against this principle,” he added.
The QR20bn township will have streets free of air and noise pollution caused by moving cars. It will also have one of the largest underground parking facilities in the country with a capacity of more than 10,000 vehicles to be controlled by smart applications, said the official.
Parking areas would all be underground so there would be no car parked on the streets. Visitors will be able to locate their cars in the dedicated parking lots using a new smart phone application.
The project would use an advanced waste disposal system, arguably a first in the country, in which all waste will go to one place through pipes to be processed for recycling. Water, electricity and telecommunications systems would also be underground so that no excavations would be required in case any expansion works are carried out in the premises.
“Thirty percent of the project is now completed, next year it will be 50 percent and in 2016, we will finish the third phase,” Al Mahashadi said. More info
