By Mohammad Shoeb
DOHA: Qatar Fuel Company (Woqod) has announced the opening of several specialised car maintenance service facilities inside Doha in collaboration with some leading car dealers.
“We are going to develop standalone full car maintenance service facilities at Woqod petrol stations wherever space is available,”, Ibrahim Jaham Al Kuwari, CEO of Woqod told The Peninsula yesterday on the sidelines of the company’s Annual General Meeting.
“The total number of centres have not been decided yet. We are going to start with three big players such as Toyota, Nissan and Mercedes. These facilities will be a joint venture project between Woqod and the specific car dealers,” Al Kuwari added.
The design of these centres are currently undergoing a lot of developments. But if everything goes as per the plan then it will start with at least three facilities by the end of this year.
These facilities will be separate entities located along Woqod petrol stations wherever they can be accommodated. These brand-dedicated service centres will be providing full services of all leading cars manufacturers, including Ford, GMC and all major Japanese brands.
The investment cost of each centres is expected to vary from company to company depending on the size of the facility. But the estimated cost of an ideal service centre would be over QR50m.
The names and locations of these proposed centres have not been disclosed, but according, to Al Kuwari, they will be a carrying the names of Woqod as well as the name of a particular car brand.
“We are working to further tightening agreements with more car dealers. Japanese car dealers such as Toyota, Nissan and others are more aggressive for establishing such centres”, he added.
“As these centres will be built in different parts of Doha for leading car dealers, the car owners, instead of going to industrial area, will get full maintenance services with great comfort and ease.”
The company is in the final stage of giving the full study to its Board of Directors for their approval. Once the plan is approved, the development work will soon start at various locations.
Asked about developing more fuel stations, especially in some underserved areas, such as Al Corniche Street and F-Ring Road, he said Woqod has submitted a ‘master plan’ to concerned authorities which trying hard to provide right locations.
“In some areas such as Corniche it is difficult to find appropriate space to establish a fuel station,” he said.
“So we are looking forward to developing some back streets which can be easily accessed by traffic along Corniche Road and similar critical locations,” Al Kuwari added.
He said Woqod is going to open some 18-20 additional fuels stations in strategic areas across the country to ease the rush at existing petrol stations.
The Peninsula
