The Peninsula
Mowasalat (Karwa) with a fleet of 2,385 dedicated buses is all set to provide a seamless transportation to fans of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
“For Qatar 2022, we will operate 2,385 buses transporting expected 50,000 passengers per day,” Mowasalat said in a tweet.
The company is also conducting ‘match day simulations’ to test the services. Only on Friday, the company operated five hubs for four stadiums with 1,800 buses and drivers for the simulation.
Out of total 2,385 buses on the roads dedicated for fans, 741 buses are electric, Mowasalat said in a tweet. The buses covering 80 plus routes per day will cater needs of 50,000 passengers per day free of charge.
The company earlier announced that Karwa will also operate 800 taxis during the World Cup. In addition, over 1,300 taxis were launched recently under new ‘Karwa-Fox’ economy service in partnership with Fox Transport. The service will provide passengers with ease of access to budget-priced transportation through the Karwa Taxi App.
The company has over 1,600 hybrid buses, the latest diesel-powered fleet, working with euro-6 engine and using RW technology to remove negative effects caused by smoke of vehicles. Qatar is hosting the first FIFA World Cup using a high number of electric buses and electric and hybrid taxis to reduce the carbon emissions drastically during the tournament.
In a mammoth operation carried out on September 21-22, Mowasalat (Karwa) had executed a demo run to test over 2,300 tournament service buses across 80 routes, mirroring the days with the highest ridership during Qatar 2022.
The country witnessed a first-of-its-kind event, where a massive workforce, specially trained for the tournament bus services, went on the road, connecting 25 major depots and operation hubs for Qatar2022, among them Souq Waqif, the Fan Zones, West Bay, Umm Besher, Barwa Madinatna and Barahat Al-Janoub.
It is to be noted that Qatar has succeeded in achieving the target of converting 25 percent of its public transport fleet to eco-friendly mode. In 2020, the country set a goal to make 25 percent of its public transit bus fleet electric-powered by 2022.
Public buses, government school buses and Doha Metro feeder buses will gradually shift to electric, thus hitting the roll-out percentage required to reduce harmful carbon emissions from buses by 2030.