Jeddah mayoralty is facing difficulties in fixing potholes and other road problems owing to insufficient funds.

Mansour Nazir, chairman of the road and transport commission at the mayoralty, said: “Budgetary constraints are preventing us from solving the road problems that citizens and residents experience on a regular basis. We are even postponing some projects owing to lack of funds,” he said.

“In addition, road repairs are completed through bids from companies, whom we award contracts for a certain period of time. But this is a lengthy process because we need time to review and evaluate the bids in view of the urgency of the situation. And we are not the only party which has a say in this. Some government agencies take a very long time to finalize the procedures,” he said.

The Municipal Council, he said, held many meetings to solve road and transport problems in Jeddah. “Different parts of Saudi Arabia have different problems with varying degrees of course. The council is a watchdog for the mayoralty and we are basically the voice of citizens and follow up on matters with the mayoralty until they are resolved,” he added.

Several streets show road construction signs because work is still incomplete. Many vehicles continually run into the concrete slabs covering road construction sites that are still in place in a number of streets.

Motorists say that although the bridge on Tahliah Street was officially opened last year, there is still debris left over from the construction work on the median strip, causing damage to vehicles.