Awaidah Murshed Al Marar, Chairman of the Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport (DMAT) received a delegation from the State of Qatar headed by Dr. Saad Bin Ahmed Al Mohannadi, Chairman of the Public Works Authority, in addition to scores of municipal officials as well as specialists in Municipal works, roads and infrastructure.

Attendees of the meeting included Suwaidan Rashid Al Dhahri, Acting Chief Executive of Abu Dhabi General Services Company (Musanada) and several officials from DMAT, Abu Dhabi City Municipality and Musanada Company.

The visit aimed at bolstering cooperation and share experiences in municipal affairs, transport and infrastructure, and reviewing the experiences of DMAT and other municipalities in the emirate. The two parties explored ways & means of boosting their cooperation in those fields.

During the meeting, the Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport made a detailed presentation highlighting the organizational structure as well as regulatory, legislative and supervisory duties of the three municipalities in the emirate: Abu Dhabi City Municipality, Al Ain Municipality and Western Region Municipality.

The presentation also spotlighted various divisions involved in constructing & maintaining internal and external roads and infrastructure, project management, and initiatives capable of meeting the needs and aspirations of the community, supporting the local economy and contributing to materializing the sustainable development in the emirate.

The Qatari delegation reviewed procedures related to the maintenance of infrastructure, internal and external roads, bridges, tunnels and pedestrian bridges, infrastructure networks, rainwater drainage networks, lamp posts, among others.

Musanada also made a presentation profiling the company by highlighting its business domain, road & infrastructure projects undertaken and services provided for projects & facilities management sector. It also spotlighted the governance of project management, project lifecycle during the design & construction phases and the best means applied to curb project costs through revitalizing the planning & business processes as well as the implementation of value engineering at the highest standards to yield the best results.

In this context, the Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport referred to the manuals, standards, specifications and legislation it has issued to ensure sustainability and cut construction & maintenance cost. These include Abu Dhabi Green Roads Assessment Manual, Roads Design Manual, roads and infrastructure construction standard specifications, and Lighting Specification and Standards Manual (Roads & Parks). The presentation also cited a number of practices including the use of plastic networks in the paving roads, replacing traditional lighting with LED, reducing lighting on highways, and dimming lighting as per 2016 specifications.

The Abu Dhabi City Municipality reviewed its experience in customer service, stressing the importance of integrated government service dotting various areas of Abu Dhabi emirate, availing unified municipal services as well as a number of other public services through a single-window service. This has rendered public services more accessible for customers with whom direct communication can be established to identify and meet their needs in an efficient manner that saves their time and effort and bring them happiness.

The visit comes in the framework of cooperation between government institutions in the GCC, and as part of the continuous quest for improving infrastructure projects and upgrading the quality of services on offer to community members.