Hassan Nassar, Academy Manager at Dalla driving Doha. Photo by Kammutty VP
A leading driving school in Doha is offering several innovative services to customers including an option for parents or employers to monitor the training of their children or employees online.
The Dallah Driving Academy, one of the newest and most sophisticated driving schools in the country has also launched a special programme to train people with disabilities.
The school has a high-tech workshop to modify vehicles to suit the requirements of people with different types of disabilities.
The Academy’s sprawling training area in Mesaimeer is built to imitate the actual status of the roads in the country with intersections, subways, roundabouts, live traffic signal and different traffic landmarks.
“There is a monitoring tower and all vehicles are under strict monitoring system and electronically linked to the operation room,” said Hassan Nassar, manager of the Academy in an interview with The Peninsula.
“ Parents or employers can be given a special password so that they can watch the training of their children or employees real time from their mobile or computer,” he added.
Al Amal (Hope) is a project to train people with physical disabilities to get a driving licence and become fully independent. The Academy has developed a training course for different cases of physical disability.
“There are many employees, students and professionals like engineers, technicians and many others with partial physical disabilities willing to drive and enjoy normal life but have difficulties with driving. For such people we have developed the Amal Project which is not limited to certain conditions of disability," said Nassar.
The Academy has vehicles specially prepared to suit each trainee with a disability or difficulty with driving.
The Academy has a special workshop and technicians to make special modifications in their vehicles after they obtain a driving licence to help them drive safely on the road.
450 instructors at Academy
All changes in the vehicles are made with Traffic Department’s approval in a way that does not affect the entire system, mostly in external parts like pedals and gear to suit the driver’s physical condition, added Nassar.
“We are the only driving school in Qatar offering this course, with special training cars and experienced driving instructors. People with physical disabilities need to offer medical fitness report but in some cases the Academy is consulted whether it can offer training to certain conditions and we give the necessary feedback,” said Nasser.
He said the ban on around 260 professions from having a driving licence has affected enrollment at the Academy by 20 to 30 percent. “This decision was based on studies of traffic situation in the country and taken in the interest of the public,” he added.
The Academy has 400 to 450 instructors including females. Female trainees have the full freedom to choose a male or female instructor, and all vehicles are electronically monitored.
The discrepancy between the prices of full course and half course (40 lessons for QR 3350 and 20 lessons for QR 2800) is because of fixed fees like insurance and other administrative fee, he explained.
“We make refund for people not willing to continue for different reasons after deduction of some administrative fees,” said Nassar.
The Academy has many facilities including nursery, library, an auditorium with a capacity of over 300 people.
