City Center Mall ordered to move outdoor taxi stand
Government officials have ordered City Center Mall to relocate its outdoor taxi stand, known for its traffic congestion and dangers to pedestrians, the shopping complex’s manager has said.
Signage now directs passengers to catch a cab by walking through the mall and descending to the parking garage due east of the old taxi stand.
City Center manager Joerg Harengerd said extensive renovations of the basement area around the new taxi stand are planned, including new washrooms, refreshment stalls as well as an air conditioned waiting area.
Speaking to Doha News, he said: “Now that we are bringing (taxi customer) into our premises, we plan to take care of them. We want to make it very easy and comfortable if you have to wait for a taxi.”
Harengerd said that while the move wasn’t the mall’s idea – the directive came from the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning – he praised the government’s vision for the densely populated neighborhood, which lacks usable sidewalks in many areas.
“(It’s a vision to) beautify West Bay, make it safer for pedestrians and give them the possibility to walk on the street.”
Preliminary data from the weekend showed passengers were in line for an average of approximately seven minutes – information that officials previously didn’t have because the old taxi stand was in a public area.
Harengerd said the mall is in discussions with Mowasalat about ways of improving service, such as having supervisors on site that could put out a call for more cabs when passenger lineups reach a certain threshold.
Harengerd said it was his understanding that the old taxi stand would be converted to a bus stop with climate-controlled shelters.
“For us, this is an improvement.”
Thoughts?
Source: dohanews
