Damascus-Sana
The People's Assembly, in its seventeenth session of the first ordinary session of the third legislative session, held today under the chairmanship of Hammouda Sabbagh, Speaker of Parliament, discussed the performance of the Ministry of Transport and issues related to its work.
At the beginning of the session, the Minister of Transport, Eng. Zuhair Khuzaim, announced that the Ministry was able to complete a 400 km long railway line rehabilitation project from Damascus to Aleppo, and it will be put into service before the end of this year, explaining that the investment and operation of a second Airbus 340 aircraft has also been started.
Minister Khuzaim stated that work is underway to equip the airports of Aleppo and Latakia, while all steps have been completed to connect the directorates and departments of transport in the governorates through the electronic vehicle transactions management program and automate work with all concerned authorities to simplify procedures and reduce the financial burdens on citizens as part of the administrative reform project implemented by the Ministry .
The Minister of Transport revealed that the value of the sums collected from providing transport services through the electronic payment system amounted to approximately 28 billion pounds, exceeding 85 percent of the total amounts collected for electronic payment services in all ministries.
In their interventions, a number of council members called for exploring the possibility of linking governorates to railways, restructuring the Syrian aviation, completing the suburban train, reviewing airline ticket prices from Damascus to Qamishli, restoring Aleppo Transport Directorate, and creating more transport directorates in densely populated areas.
A number of members pointed out the need to complete the Hama Salamiyah and Nahr al-Bared roads, Shatha Jorin, re-activate Aleppo International Airport, and provide the central roads with traffic safety supplies, including signs, road paint and night reflectors.
A number of members also demanded to supply Qamishli airport with equipment and land and navigational supplies, asking about the investment mechanism of Tartous port and the status of its workers.
In his response to the interventions, the Minister of Transport clarified that the completion rate of the project to rehabilitate Aleppo International Airport has reached 99%, and that two flights per week will be operated from it to Egypt and Sudan, and work is underway to expand the airport runway, maintain the long runway at Damascus International Airport and rehabilitate the Al-Basil Airport runway in Lattakia, pointing out that The implementation of a project to replace public and private car plates will start within about two months.
He pointed out that the contract concluded with the investing party for the port of Tartous is very good and is in the public interest. The defect in the implementation of the contract was addressed during the first year by changing the management of the investing party of the port and resolving most of the workers' problems, including medical and health insurance, and the implementation of the plan agreed upon with the investing entity will be followed up. .
Minister Khuzayem pointed out that there are contracts under final study for the rehabilitation and maintenance of roads and bridges, including the Aleppo-Hama road, and work is underway to create a transportation department in Maskanah in the countryside of Aleppo.
The session, which was attended by Minister of State for People's Assembly Affairs, Maloul Al-Hussein, rose to 11 pm tomorrow, Thursday.
Wasim Al-Adawi and the extent of Aloush