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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

National Transportation Survey kicks off

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A National Transportation Survey is being kicked off by the Supreme Council for Planning to help garner data and inputs necessary to chart an ambitious National Transport Model for the Sultanate.


The survey, according to officials, is being undertaken in conjunction with the formulation of Regional Spatial Strategies currently underway in all 11 governorates of the Sultanate. These governorate-level strategies will be collated to create the Oman National Spatial Strategy (ONSS) — a high-level land-use framework that will help the nation’s planners to chart the long-term development of the Sultanate at the regional and national levels.


In parallel with this landmark initiative, consultants appointed by the Supreme Council are also mobilising teams of surveyors who will be tasked with collating data and inputs encompassing all aspects of transport in the governorates falling within their respective remits.


Besides carrying out traffic counts at key intersections and carriageways, the survey teams will also collate data on transport behaviour trends in households and neighbourhoods, freight volumes at seaports falling within their jurisdictions, and inventory roads in each governorates.


Additionally, the consultants will survey public transport facilities, seek inputs on the need for capacity building for the transport sector, and compile a geodatabase of geographical data for each governorate. It is understood that the data gleaned from the national survey will help in the formulation of strategies for developing multi-modal transport systems critical for the long-term growth of the national economy.


In the governorates of Muscat and South Al Batinah — two of Oman’s most populous governorates accounting for nearly half of the nation’s total population — the National Transport Survey is being undertaken by the partnership of the National Engineering Office (NEO), a well-known engineering consultancy firm of the Sultanate, and LEA Associates South Asia Private Limited (LASA) of India.


Conrad Prabhu


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