– Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior said Sunday its General Department of Traffic would start re-organizing the taxi and call taxi services in keeping with the modernization of the traffic system, starting from October 1.

The new regulations, based on ministerial decrees 421 (1988) and 182 (2004) are made under the instructions of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense and Acting Minister of Interior Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, according a press release from the Ministry’s the General Department of Public Relations and Security Media.

The regulations fall in the framework of the keenness of Higher Security Command in the Ministry to improve the services provided by taxi drivers and to offer better public transportation services to citizens and residents, the statement added.

The new procedures will include auditing the owners taxi companies and the requirements that must be met according to traffic law and its executive regulations and related ministerial decisions.

It will include also working in a uniform, with set working hours in line with labor law, in coordination with the Public Authority for Manpower.

The statement explained that taxi drivers must carry a fitness card that would be renewed annually in coordination with the ministry of Health It stated that all taxi cars must meet all technical and hygiene requirements inside and outside when loading passengers.

The ministry warned that the driving license would be withdrawn in case of repeated serious traffic violations and that driver will be referred to final deportation, in addition to registering a note on the owner of the taxi company.

Inspection campaigns will be carried in cooperation with the ministry of commerce and Kuwait municipality to follow up the implementation of the decision.

Violating companies and offices will face most severe penalties, said the ministry’s statement, including the cancelation of work permits and the closure of the companies

Source: Kuwait News Agency