Driving schools witness heavy learners’ rush during summer

DOHA: The number of learners is witnessing an increase in driving schools during the summer vacation, particularly for light-vehicle driving licence and most of the aspirants of the licences are either university students or employees of various private organisations.

“A big number of aspirants for driving licences are visiting driving schools since the start of summer vacation and most of them are university students. Driving licence is a common necessity for everyone nowadays and there are some companies which insist their employees must secure a driving licence,” Hassan Nassar, Manager of Dalla Driving Academy (pictured below) said.

 

 

“Also there is a high demand of driving licence for heavy vehicles due to numerous mega construction projects in the country. There are many ongoing projects for the World Cup 2022 which are expected to continue for the next few years. All these will contribute to high demand of heavy-vehicle licences,” Nasser told The Peninsula.

The Peninsula talked to some of the learners who said that this was a proper time for them to register for driving course as it was necessary after graduation and they did not have time except summer vacations.

“I got disappointed when I visited one of the driving schools to register for driving course last June and found that there was no vacancy left and the registration process had been closed. Then I was advised to revisit in August,” said Arwa Akhtar, an expatriate university student.

Another expatriate, Adnan, said that he had visited two driving schools for registration but from both institutes he had been refused on grounds of no seats available.

“Finally, I found a school but it is far from my residence,”Engineer Nassar (pictured), added. Regarding the fees, he said for the last 10 years, there was no change in the fee structure where the cost of full course (40 classes) is QR3350 and the fee of half course (20 classes) is QR2800.

“Dalla Driving Academy is offering sophisticated, modern training to students which is computer-based except the road test, and the department is ready to make the road test through the ‘smart cars’ without intervention from police and waiting the General Directorate of Traffic approval,” he said.

The Smart Cars for driving tests decide the results of driving test without intervention of the supervising policemen. Currently the final driving tests on the road are supervised by traffic policemen, who also decide whether the candidate has passed or failed.

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