Correspondence, official books, meetings and requests for amendments to the Kuwait Metro Project between the Public Authority for Roads and Transportation (PART) and Kuwait Municipality have been going on for more than three years; until the authority sent a ‘shocking’ letter last Sunday, dodging its responsibility for the project, reports Al-Rai daily. In the letter, the authority said its only function is to take decisions regarding the requests related to conflicts and obstacles to the right of way.

The authority’s letter was dated Nov 28, 2021 in response to the letter of the Municipality dated April 18, 2019. It justified its position by pointing out there are many conflicts regarding the project, and that it was not officially instructed to start the project.

Returned
Also, the authority returned to the Municipality a CD containing the path and stations of the metro; in addition to the feasibility studies prepared by the Partnership Authority in 2012 and 2016. An official from the Municipality expressed dissatisfaction over the authority’s behavior, indicating that it is surprising the authority responded to the municipality’s letter after two years and eight months. He explained that even if the project is under the Council of Ministers, the authority must carry out certain tasks as per the government’s instruction on Oct 11, 2020 that it should follow up and implement the railway project.

According to the source, the authority’s disclaimer about its responsibility surprised the Municipality whose Director General, Engineer Ahmed Al-Manfouhi, contacted PART on April 18, 2019 regarding the request for data about the metro project mentioned in the feasibility studies; in addition to the file of the geographical coordinate system of the right-of-way./aa