Transportation during 2020 ... Rehabilitation of the Aleppo-Damascus highway ... Restarting Aleppo airport ... Completion of electronic connectivity of transport directorates and departments in governorates

Damascus-Sana

During the year 2020, the Ministry of Transport and its affiliates achieved several projects for developing the road and rail transport system and simplifying procedures for transport transactions in the governorates.

One of the most prominent projects was the completion of the electronic linking of transport directorates and departments in the governorates, as it became automated and with a single database that allows access to any information and the completion of any transaction from any directorate and department without the need to travel or move and in accordance with the principle of one employee, which was positively reflected in the simplification of procedures and the reduction of financial burdens on citizens. The value of revenues collected from transport departments this year is 59 billion Syrian pounds from the completion of one million and 600 thousand transactions.

During the current year, the Ministry has put in place an electronic payment mechanism for the service. The percentage of electronic collections exceeded 85 percent of the collection from state institutions in the matter of electronic payment, and the collection value amounted to 40 billion Syrian pounds and 700 thousand electronic payment transactions.

The Ministry created a sub-department of transport in the Al-Haffa area in the countryside of Lattakia, and Mourada in the governorate of Hama, to become the number 23 departments, while it issued a decision to reduce transportation fees by 50 percent for the holder of a wounded homeland card and one companion for him in all public transport, land, sea and air, and exempting vehicle owners from late payment fines. Vehicle license renewal fees incurred by them during the period of suspension of work at transport directorates as part of precautionary measures to address the Corona pandemic while taking all measures that contribute to addressing the virus, including suspension of working hours in all secondary schools, marine and railway institutes, and the Syrian Maritime Academy, stopping transportation by passengers and stopping training courses in all schools Teaching vehicle driving, in addition to strict sterilization procedures for all means of transport coming through the border crossings, in coordination with the Ministry of Health.

The Ministry has recently reduced the year of manufacture for public tourist cars from 12 years to 20 years and public tourist cars from 8 to 15 years. In coordination with the Ministry of Administrative Development, the ministry’s administrative support platform has been completed within the National Program for Administrative Reform in the Central Administration of the Ministry of Transport.

In the air transport sector, the Ministry worked to restart Aleppo International Airport after it had been out of service for more than eight years due to the war and the re-operation and reopening of Damascus International Airport to passenger and air freight traffic on 1-10-2020 with the implementation of all preventive and health measures and the application of the instructions and recommendations of the Aviation Organization In this regard, the international civil society in coordination with the Ministry of Health and the concerned ministries and to complete the same procedures with Aleppo, Latakia and Qamishli airports.

The ministry reduced the ticket prices of Syrian students wishing to return on board Syrian Airlines by 35 percent, and from all countries from which the Syrian nationals were evacuated to reduce the burden of the cost of the return trip for the class of students.

The Ministry implemented the general maintenance project for cladding the arrival and transit areas in the passenger hall No. 1 at Damascus International Airport to renew the transit area and redistribute the investment activities in the area to facilitate the movement of passengers and regulate heat losses, in addition to a project to provide and install three electrical generating sets that are impermeable at Aleppo International Airport to secure a feeding source. Back-up to ensure the readiness and continuity of work at the airport and the project to provide and install an optical cable to connect to the network of the navigational lighting control system at Aleppo International Airport to secure a optical connection method according to the latest specifications due to the old and poor old equipment.

In the maritime transport sector, the Syrian ships contributed to transporting the citizens' needs of grain and unloading it in a record time through the Syrian ports and shipping them via trains and trucks to silos within the conditions of sterilization adopted within the precautionary measures to address the Corona virus and sterilize the ships coming to Syria in cooperation with the medical personnel in the Ministry of Health in addition to Expanding the scope of recognition of Syrian maritime certificates, which will positively affect the increase in job opportunities in the maritime labor market for holders of Syrian maritime certificates.

The Atlantic Rose was also transformed from a broken-down refrigerator ship to a large ship to transport livestock according to the latest international specifications within the port of Tartous, with the contribution of national technical workers, and the ambulance was removed at the entrance to the port of Banias due to its importance in facilitating the provision of services to ships that lead to the mouth of oil in Baniyas, while the Ministry agreed to establish Prefabricated rooms for fishermen on the dock of the fishing and picnic port in Lattakia in order to facilitate the work of fishermen and to prevent slums and visual distortion.

In the railway transport sector, the Ministry rehabilitated the Aleppo-Hama-Homs-Damascus corridor with a length of 400 km, where the Homs-Damascus corridor extends over a length of 200 km and the Aleppo-Hama-Homs corridor with a length of 200 km, and the implementation rate up to its date reached 97%, so this project was important in securing transportation Passengers and goods at a lower time and cost and servicing thermal stations and production centers located on this axis and as a result of this qualification, the first shipment of grain was transferred from the port of Tartous to the Al-Baynah silos on 8-8-2020.

The Ministry recently resumed the transportation of cement by trains from the Tartous cement plant to Lattakia as a first and experimental step in preparation for its future adoption, mainly in order to save time and costs, and secure the needs of the authorities after a hiatus of more than ten years and operate the passenger train, especially for students between Tartous - Lattakia and vice versa, and even on Fridays to serve Open education students, in addition to completing the dry port project, container yard and the railway branch from the new Khunayfis station to Hassia’s industrial city, with an implementation rate of 80 percent to date, and the conclusion of a contract with the General Company for Railroad Construction, which contributes to facilitating the transportation of raw materials to and from the industrial city in Hassia and the products and to activate the role The dry harbor in it.

According to the ministry, the implementation studies for the project for constructing the dry port and container yard in the industrial city of Sheikh Najjar and the railway branch from Jibreen station have been completed, and the acquisition procedures have been started, noting that this project is important in developing and supporting the national economy through the industries in the industrial city and to activate the role of the dry port in it. Cardiff for sea ports, increasing the flow of goods transport to and from Syrian ports, and easing customs procedures in seaports.

In the road transport sector, the Ministry worked on rehabilitating the Aleppo-Damascus highway and maintaining the road under three contracts, and currently the contracting procedures are underway to rehabilitate the bridges located on it and continue work to invest in the southern Aleppo diversion to complete the road link between the southern entrance to Aleppo and the eastern entrance.

The Ministry has maintained and rehabilitated bridges on the southern Aleppo diversion and completed the maintenance of seven bridges: “Ramoussa First and Second - Quwaik - Cement - Tenth Node - Airport Node - Qamishli Bridge” and is currently under completion of contracting procedures to rehabilitate the Asan and Neirab bridges on the diversion and remove the barriers and obstacles at the entrance The Latakia-Aleppo international road, known as the "M4" road, is to be put into service and to complete the border road of 70 kilometers in Sweida, and to rehabilitate the Tartous-Dreikish road with a diversion of about 24 kilometers.

The Damascus-Homs highway “Go” from Al-Qatifah to the Maaloula Bridge was also expanded and rehabilitated, and the two bridges of the irrigation canal on the Aleppo-Raqqa import were rehabilitated to facilitate the access of irrigation water to agricultural lands, link traffic between Aleppo and Raqqa governorates, and carry out the necessary maintenance for the Rastan bridge to ensure the safety and safety of the bridge users. The flow of traffic and the completion of the paving and maintenance of Al-Mukhtariah Road in Lattakia in addition to maintenance works on the axis of Lattakia-Slunfeh Al-President road, as it is a tourist road witnessing heavy traffic. All destroyed sites have been addressed and the level of some turns has been raised to ensure traffic safety and the works of Sheikh Mansour Tunnel on Kassab Road have been completed. Lattakia, maintenance and rehabilitation of the Rastan Bridge on the Homs-Hama highway.

During the year 2020, the Ministry re-walked on the two bridges of the irrigation canal on the Aleppo-Raqqa road after their implementation was completed, improving the quality of the central road network and raising the level of road safety and safety standards through maintenance projects carried out by the institution that lead to saving time, fuel and maintenance costs and reducing The number of accidents.

Regarding future projects, the Ministry revealed that there is a study to enable the citizen to pay traffic offenses upon completion of the vehicle transaction and seeks with interest to enable all citizens to open a special electronic payment account in all public “commercial banks with its industrial-real estate branches” in order to simplify transaction procedures, improve the quality of citizen service and provide Time, effort and expenses for citizens with the possibility of citizen dispensing with the transaction tracker, as he can complete any transaction easily and with one employee in the hall in addition to implanting an electronic payment culture among the citizen and dispensing with paperwork.

Bushra Barhoum-Ghossoub Abboud