Within the two districts of Duhok and Semel lies 68% of Duhok Province’s population. These two districts’ population, including refugees and Internally Displaced People (IDPs), is estimated at 73 554 inhabitants. Semel district, which hosts most of the Refugees and IDPs, has 216,748 inhabitants and 121,487 IDPs and refugees. While the number of Syrian Refugees in the Domiz area, both camp and non-camps, are 19.058 households and 72,328 Individuals.
In April 2021, workshops and meetings include different stakeholders in the transportation sector to discuss the most relevant intervention on road safety and transportation that MASAR can do. One of the workshop recommendations was to developing a public transportation starting with a 15 kilometres line connecting Domiz – Duhok. This pilot is to serve disentangled people, including two of the biggest refugees’ camps in the region, seven IDP camps and the most vulnerable people from the host community.
The study will start with a community outreach survey to summarise the travel household in Domiz. Later, present reasonable justification for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system and no other transportation methods. Another recommendation was on green road design, aiming to develop the capacity of a design team who can develop the road design for the two-sided mountainous road to improve the highway network and reconstruct the existing corridor in the governorate with the Turkish border to enhance economic development.
The BRT study launched with a survey in different parts of the Domiz Urban area in which 426 households participated. According to that survey, a total of 1794 trips by individual household members for various travel purposes were made: two third were for work purposes, while a quarter was for other purposes like education and hospitals. The survey result develops a technical plan for the road lane. On the other side, another desk study was conducted to compare the atmosphere of Duhok with similar cities worldwide to prove that the bus system is the most affordable transportation method. The stakeholder presented, discussed and accepted the results during 2 sequence workshops. Finally, the plan is submitted to the high road committee in the governorate headquarters for endorsement and later implementation.
The road design study started with several technical activities to select the right path, parallel with a series of capacity development courses targeting 25 engineers from several related governmental employees. This activity is followed by drone mapping for the selected path, geophysics survey, and final design. To be submitted to the government for implementation.