Recently, the Ministry of Transportation and the European Aviation signed an agreement in the air transportation field, that aims at opening lines for 27 European countries and their active airlines to take advantage of the aviation rights and transferring them to and from Jordan.
During the radio program “Amman this Morning” on Hawa Amman FM, and in the presence of the Executive Manager of Transportation and Traffic, Dr. Ayman Smadi, Minister of Transportation, Engineer Al’aa Batayneh said that Jordan is the second Arab country, after Morocco, to sign this agreement which is called “the Total Agreement”.
He stressed that this agreement which is advantageous for 490 million European citizens, will contribute to activating tourism, and the same applies for Morocco as its touristic income increased from 16% to 20%.
He also highlighted Jordan’s positive role in the Arab Transportation council in regard to the initiatives which help unite the legislatives of the sector, pointing out that the Ministry adopts a joined traffic program with Syria and Lebanon, effective for one year or fifty travels which contributed to facilitating the matter for the citizens.
According to Batayneh, Saudi Arabia and Yemen recently adopted this joint program, also Egypt and Iraq expressed their interest in joining to this traffic program.
During the program presented by Ahmad Fahim, Al Batayneh reviewed the features of the railway project which was adopted as the first Arab project, and its technical specifications were determined as well as the connection points to enable each country to know where it will be connected with the neighboring country.
He further clarified that the project dedicated to haul goods, with 120 km speed, corresponds to the European standards, works with diesel to reduce costs, and includes meeting stations.
Batayneh emphasized that the surrounding Arab countries started developing their own networks, such as Saudi Arabia which expects to complete the line reaching to the southern Jordanian borders by the end of 2011, and Syria which is 107 km far from the northern borders of the Kingdom, while Iraq tendered proposals to update its network.
He added that the Government attracted since few years ago some international companies to specify the lanes needed for the network the length of which reaches to 1080 km inside Jordan, passing through the west, east, north and south of the Kingdom. He also pointed out that this idea is based on commencing with the implementation of 950 km of the network.
Most of the lands’ acquisition procedures have been completed regarding announcing and defining them (the lands), and all the necessary technical and environmental studies have been conducted, and the private property owners have been compensated for their lands.
Batayneh mentioned that the project will be financially structured, and the necessary governmental support will be determined to realize the project and activate and invest in the local, regional and international private sector.
Engineer Batayneh commended the relations between Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) and the Ministry of Transportation, indicating that there is a noticeable improvement in the public transportations in the Capital, Amman, and in the future projects which GAM aims at executing to develop the public transportation system.
On his part, Dr. Smadi, revealed that a compound will be built in Sweileh to serve the west northern areas, based on a comprehensive study conducted by GAM as a first step towards determining the needs of the transportation network of Jordan.
Dr. Smadi added that once the light train project is initiated in three or four years, a compound will be constructed in King Abdullah II Street, while the Mahata station will play a vital and fundamental role as it will receive the light train coming from Zarqa, Amman Train, and two lines for quick buses.
Smadi announced that GAM will soon commence the quick frequency buses project, noting that GAM transferred the feasibility study and the primary design for the metro system to a French company last month.
