Doha: In their effort to reduce road accidents and to catch erring motorists, the General Directorate of Traffic conducts secret traffic patrols on Qatar roads.

The drive focuses on traffic violations like not wearing seat belts, speed and overtaking from the right.

Traffic officials in regular cars conduct patrols on all street to monitor traffic and penalise drivers who do not respect traffic rules.

In 2018, the total number of traffic violations recorded in the country was more than 1.78 million, according to Traffic Department statistics. Over 60 percent of these were related to over speeding.

An official at the department said that overtaking from the right has decreased compared to before.

In the last few years, the traffic department has taken up various initiatives to ensure motorists follow traffic rules, including raising awareness, setting up more mobile radars and increasing fine for various penalities.