Poll promise: Waiting time for trucks at causeway to be cut

Manama : Easing bureaucracy will help reduce the waiting time for clearance of trucks from 24 hours to 5 hours at the King Fahd causeway, according to a businessman. 

Abdulwahed Abdulaziz Qarata, who is running for the BCCI board elections, says he aims to drastically cut down waiting time at the causeway. He said that his experience as an owner of a transportation company and as part of the Transport and logistics committee of the BCCI in the previous term gives him the expertise to tackle the issue. 

“In the last four years I was the vice president of the transport and logistics committed of the BCCI. One of the biggest issues we have dealt with in recent years is the delays at the causeway when they stop for clearance. Not so long ago, trucks used to be stuck at the causeway for upto 7 days, but now the waiting time has reduced to 24 hours or less. Our ambition is to reduce it further to 5 hours,” he said. 

“This will require close cooperation with Saudi government as well. I would recommend the governments to minimize the bureaucracy and the rules pertaining to the border. I believe in the past four years we have made a lot of progress and there is huge potential to improve this further,” he said. 

He said that his other priority, if elected, would be to study the increasing fees.

“One of the priorities would be to study the increasing fees. I would like to study it and see how it can be revised. There are fees that are increasing by 100 per cent and there are there that have increased by even 500 per cent, this is not fair towards the private sector. Many businesses have closed down because of this,” he said. Qarata, who initially announced as an independent candidate for the elections, yesterday announced that he has joined the Tojjar bloc.