JEDDAH — There is an urgent need to open government offices such as Jawazat (Passports Department) in different places of the city to save time and energy, several Jeddawis have said. People have to cross several kilometers through busy roads spending hours to reach government offices now as they are not geographically distributed, said Dhaifullah Al-Otaibi. "Traffic jams have become a common phenomenon on Jeddah roads," said Wafi Al-Zahrani joining the call to open government offices in areas closer to residential districts. Majed Abdullah wondered why the governorate is not opening government service offices in northern, southern, eastern, western and central parts of the city for the benefit of citizens. He stressed the importance of geographical distribution of public services such as hospitals, notaries public, social insurance office and Jawazat. "Some of these offices can be opened at malls like Jawazat offices that extend commendable services to Saudis and expatriates," he pointed out. Mohsen Al-Attas said computer connectivity has made opening of branch offices for government departments easy. "In order to get a power of attorney I had to visit a notary's office in the east of Jeddah and it took me two hours," said Mohammed Abdullah, a resident of Salamah District. Hassan Al-Zahrani, secretary general of the center for residential districts, emphasized that it was essential to open offices of government departments in various parts of Jeddah. "Our organization backs this demand because Jeddah has become a large city and its population has almost doubled. People have to spend hours on roads to reach government offices," he said.
