TUESDAY MAY 17, 2016 SHA’BAN 10, 1437 VOL.10 NO. 3543 QR 2 FINE Fajr: 3:20 am Dhuhr: 11:31 am HIGH : 39°C Asr: 2:57 pm Maghrib: 6:13 pm LOW : 28°C Isha: 7:43 pm Business 21 Sports 29 Chill Out Brent rises to near $50 Lekhwiya to meet El Jaish in The funny on supply outage woes AFC CL clash in Doha tonight action star QIA to create FM ATTENDS MEETING ON LIBYA IN VIENNA Commuters lost $100 bn unit in overhaul over 100 working AGENCIES DOHA hours to traffic QATAR Investment Authority (QIA) is un- dergoing its biggest jams last year overhaul since 2014, grouping $100 billion of investments in local companies into a new Time wasted in traffic cost the economy over unit and abandoning the QR5 billion in 2015, says QMIC report Qatar Holding name, sources said. About $100 billion of MANEESH BAKSHI the QIA’s stakes in com- DOHA panies such as Qatar Air- ways and Qatar National COMMUTERS in Qatar lost an aver- Bank will be placed into age of 102 working hours due to traffic a new internal division congestion last year, leading to an es- named Qatar Invest- timated loss of over QR5 billion to the ments, the sources said. economy, according to a new report re- The fund is seeking leased on Monday. to bring greater over- Foreign Minister HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani takes part in the ministerial meeting on Libya chaired by Qatar Mobility Innovations Centre’s sight by having a single Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni and US Secretary of State John Kerry in Vienna on Monday. Countries participating (QMIC) Qatar Traffic Report (QTR) for CONGESTION FALLOUT in the meeting reiterated that the Presidential Council is the only legitimate body in Libya and expressed their willingness to person in charge. 2015 said the loss of productivity due to ● The Qatar Holding provide support to the Presidential Council in dealing with ISIS group. (AFP) SEE ALSO PAGES 2 & 16 traffic jam translated into about 0.8 per- The loss of productivity due to traf- name, under which Qa- cent of Qatar’s GDP in 2015. fic jams accounts for 0.8 percent of tar invested in companies Adnan Abu-Dayya, Executive Di- Qatar’s GDP in 2015. ranging from Glencore to rector of QMIC, said the impact on the ● Commuters experienced highest Barclays will now be re- economy could be much higher if its level of traffic congestion during placed by the QIA name implication in terms of medical and en- morning peak hours between on international invest- vironmental consequences such as ac- 7 am and 8 am ments, the sources said. Airfares set to soar during cidents and pollution were taken into The country isn’t plan- consideration. ● Traffic congestion during morning ning to allocate any new The report was prepared after ana- hours was highest in November last money to the QIA this peak summer season lysing over 50 million speed records col- year, while the evening-time conges- year or withdraw funds lected from major roads of the city that tion was highest in December. and has asked it to rely witnessed traffic congestions in 2015. ● Traffic congestion level in Qatar on asset sales or dividend SATYENDRA PATHAK ing more expensive during summer increase. QMIC has one of the most sophisticated was high in comparison with other income for new invest- DOHA will be the discontinuation of dis- Irfan of the Doha-based Happy data collection platforms, Masarak, in ments, the sources added. counts of up to 40 percent offered Journey Travel said, “Currently, a the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). It countries due to a large number of The fund is also hir- AIRFARES to a number of destina- by many airlines by the end of June. return economy class ticket from updates data through 300 sensors in- road projects being implemented ing other senior execu- tions from Doha are set to shoot up, With most Indian schools Doha to Kochi is around QR1,500. stalled at critical traffic points which see in 2015. tives amid the changes. some increasing by more than dou- The fare will go beyond QR3,500 frequent congestions. Qatar Investment ble the price, during the peak sum- for outbound travel in the last week QMIC Chairman Abdulla Zaid al Tal- To quantify the severity of traffic Authority, the ninth- mer travel season this year, accord- The peak summer travel sea- of June and inbound in the last ib said, “We are eager to cooperate with congestion, the report used globally- largest sovereign wealth ing to industry sources. son — from the last week of week of August.” ministries, Public Works Authority, traf- accepted metrics such as Masarak Con- fund in the world with The peak summer travel season June till the end of September Similarly, he said, passen- fic department, urban planning agencies gestion Index (MCI), Travel Time Index more than $250 billion — between the last week of June and — is expected to see a 20 gers will have to cough up about in sharing data for analysis thus helping (TTI), Excess Travel Time (ETT). While of assets according to the end of September — is expected percent increase in the QR3,200 for a return ticket from them to come out with viable solutions MCI takes into consideration the aver- the Sovereign Wealth to see a 20 percent increase in the Doha to Thiruvananthapuram dur- leading to a congestion-free environment.” age speed reduction of commuters due Fund Institute, said last number of Qatar residents flying out number of Qatar residents ing the peak season as against a fare He said QMIC plans to issue reports to traffic congestion, TTI studies the year it’s planning to in- of the country. flying out of the country. of QR1,400 during the off-season. on yearly and quarterly basis. The traffic travel time during peak-hours on week- vest $35 billion in the US The sources said the increase in Fares to other Indian destinations data was collected by Masarak in real- days. Similarly, ETT calculates average over the next five years the number of passengers will make closing for summer vacation from like New Delhi and Mumbai will time through bluetooth-based traffic delay in minutes per kilometer during a as it opened an office in air tickers more expensive compared July 1, the airfare to Kochi and also rise, he said. sensing network, GPS-based telemetric traffic jam. New York. to previous years. Thiruvananthapuram from Doha TURN TO PAGE 2 devices and through iTraffic mobile ap- TURN TO PAGE 2 Adding to the air travel becom- is expected to see the maximum plication. QUICK READ QDF allocates Qatar armed forces take part in EFES exercise in Turkey HIA sees record 8.8 mn passengers in Q1 QR10 million ANKARA Qatari armed forces took part in the EFES multinational TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK passengers pass through its ter of 2016 with a total of aid for Aleppo exercise in Turkey, which includes command post exercise (CPX) DOHA gates during the first quar- 58,288 movements, which and field training exercise (FTX). The exercise aims to train leader- ter of 2016, with a record represents a 8.6 percent in- QNA ships on planning, leading, controlling and staff work, in addition HAMAD International Air- 3,089,826 passengers de- crease in aircraft take-offs DOHA to coordination between officers and soldiers of the Qatari armed port (HIA) has served a parting, arriving and tran- and landings at the airport, forces and their counterparts in the Turkish military as well as other record 8.8 million passen- siting in January which is compared to 56,282 move- QATAR Development Fund participating forces. The objectives of the exercise include training gers during the first quarter an unsurpassed figure for a ments during the same pe- (QDF) has allocated QR10 the staff on planning, execution, control, storming constructed ar- of 2016, making it the busiest single month for the airport. riod last year. January and million to provide relief to the eas, reconnaissance, dropping supplies by air, execution of special quarter for the airport since February and March had February saw 19,455 and war-hit people in the Syrian city operations, in addition to the use of snipers and execution of direct its opening in May 2014. 2,722,867 and 3,055,278 18,511 aircraft movements of Aleppo. and indirect shootings by ground troops and the naval fleet. (QNA) This represents a 20 passenger movements re- A view of the Hamad International respectively, followed by The fund will be used to percent increase from the spectively. The same pe- Airport. March with unprecedented provide food, shelter and medi- number of passengers that riod in 2015 saw a total of 20,322 aircraft movements, cal aid such as children’s milk, Iraq launches operation to retake Anbar town travelled through the air- 7,360,145 passengers trav- ary; and 2,485,524 in March. which is the highest the air- ambulances, medicines, water, port during the first quarter elling through HIA, includ- HIA also had a signifi- port has had. personal hygiene kits, tents and BAGHDAD Iraqi security forces and allied fighters launched an oper- of 2015. ing 2,589,400 passengers in cant increase in aircraft TURN TO PAGE 2 civil defence equipment to the ation on Monday to retake the town of Rutba from the Islamic State In all, HIA had 8,867,971 January; 2,285,221 in Febru- movements in the first quar- people of Aleppo.