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The committee established by the SDF-affiliated Raqqa Civil Council cleared the Raqqa Old City’s Garage which was previously a station for small taxis that transport civilians between the provinces and also to the western countryside (Al-Tabqah). The local council established offices in the garage and gave them to employees. In addition, a committee was established to supervise the activities of the garage, which is supposed to start operating as before.
The Bulman Garage is located south of Al Saa roundabout and it was established in 1996 during which several companies of internal and external transport opened their office in it, including Al Karama, Al-Amir and Al Hamoud companies. After Daesh took control over Raqqa, traffoc became under high pressure and civilians were not allowed to leave the city without a permission that they would obtain from the extremist organization, which costed the local population expensive amounts of money which they were paying to smugglers. Transport between the provinces was almost inactive since people were only permitted to move between Daesh-held area in Iraq and Syria.
With the reopening of the garage, civilians will be able once again to freely travel to any destination they want. The location of the means of transport is now located in only one area, which is the garage, compared to the situation before when they the means of transport were stationed in multiple areas due to the destruction of the city and its garages following the liberation from Daesh.
Once the owners of the offices are done with cleaning the latter and bring buses, the garage will be opened. They will bring buses to open the transportation roads linking Raqqa to all Syrian provinces. It is also expected that most of the previous companies will resume their work.
On the other hand, domestic transportation is now operating at a slow rate, and it is active the roads that extend from the Panorama to the Saa roundabout, as well as parts of Hisham Bno Malek neighbourhood and Syaf Al Dawlah street. Furthermore, there are ongoing efforts to open the roads in the remaining streets of the city so as to resume the activities of inland transportation buses, mainly in light of the continuing waves of returning civilians to the city and their need of domestic transportation means so that they can go the commercial centers which are now concentrated on the outskirts of the city.
The local population are hoping that the services will be restored in the city, mainly electricity, water, landline and education, as they will encourage more civilians to return to their homes, bearing in mind that most of them are now residing in rural areas nearby Raqqa and impatiently waiting to go back to their homes.