National Day: A Year of Achievements for Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning

Doha, December 15 (QNA) - The year of 2012 was a year of achievements for the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning, especially in terms of the services it rendered to the public. The Ministry's biggest achievements were in term of infra-structure; the Ministry designed the infra-structure of a number of areas in the State including old Al Ghanem, Al Khour and they also installed 86,000 signs. The Ministry is currently working on installing 50,000 more. Among these achievements were the provision of services, software, and licenses to cover the needs of more than 60 governmental entities working in the field of geographic information systems (GIS). It provides software and consulting services and technical support. The Ministry also developed Geographic information systems applications for iPhone and iPad. It also developed the QMAP software using ARC GIS Server technology, provided GIS services to all those associated with the national network and to the real estate geographical information systems of Real Estate Registration Department at the Ministry of Justice, and created Geographic coordinates of Qatar (live broadcast). The Ministry was currently working on implementing five strategies for a number of sectors. They are: national strategy of housing in the State of Qatar, strategy of national heritage in cooperation with the Qatar Museum Authority, a general strategy for community service, a strategy for recreational activities and open areas and the tourism strategy for Qatar in cooperation with Qatar Tourism Authority. They also prepared the annual plan for a comprehensive urban plan. In addition to a feasibility study for bus rapid transit, as well as providing consultancy and technical support to Qatar Rail's development plans including Qatar Metro. The Ministry will also provide the same kind of support to the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee and the Qatar Committee responsible for the 2024 Olympics bid. It also updated its urban planning plan to meet the goals of Qatar National Development Strategy 2011-2016. In public parks, the Ministry began adopting the production of local plants and flowers. They produced 3.5 million seedlings and 100,000 saplings of Qatari plants. They also set up a number of parks and redecorated some of the others available across Qatar. The Ministry also revamped its municipality electronic services, and also issued a number of building permits and maintenance licenses. They also led campaigns to clean sea shores and combat rodents in houses. (QNA)