The closure of the Dammam–Khobar underpass tunnel near Dammam Sports Stadium has placed tremendous pressure on the already-congested roads of the city. This has raised concerns among parents who have to drop their children at school and then make it to their workplaces on time. The tunnel has been closed indefinitely since Thursday due to major repair work. Motorists complain that it takes on average about half an hour to cover one km distance to the First Industrial Area, Saudi Electric Company, Aramco and International Indian School Dammam during the morning and afternoon rush hours. The problem is exacerbated for parents who drop their children at school and then have to go to work. About 15,000 students study in IISD, and many parents opt to drive their children to school in order to reduce transportation expenses. On several roads, vehicles are seen crawling bumper-to-bumper during peak hours creating chaos. Several nationals and expatriates commented that the tunnel repair work should have been started during the summer holidays when the schools were closed and most of the expatriates, the bulk of the population in the Eastern Province, were on vacation. Municipal authorities started the repair of the highway tunnel on Thursday and traffic authorities have already installed new traffic signals near the Askan area and re-routing signal boards in order to control the traffic chaos. Muhammad Suneer, a resident of Adama District, said that it took him 50 minutes to reach his office in the First Industrial Area whereas it normally only takes him seven minutes. “Now I have to go all the way through Madinathul Ummal, the Abdullah Fouad area and Dammam Housing in order to reach my office in heavy traffic,” he said. The detour traffic is one of the major reasons for the city's increasing traffic congestion. Office hours coincide with school hours, and this is also another contributing factor to the heavy traffic woes. Dammam's major Indian schools, such as, the International Indian School Boys and the Indian International School Girls section have more than 100 buses each. Khozama School, another Indian institution, operates more than two dozen buses daily.
