BEIRUT: Beirut MP Mohammad Qabbani, the chair of Parliament’s Public Works, Transport, Energy and Water Committee, said Wednesday that the Transport and Public Works Ministry had been putting off the committee’s demands for a public transportation plan for the past 10 years.

Qabbani also noted that the committee would inform Speaker Nabih Berri that ministry representatives have not attended committee meetings for the past year.Separately, Berri called for a session on Dec. 14 to continue the questions and answers session for the Cabinet.

“First, second and third, there should be political will to lay down a public transportation plan … the executive branch is to be blamed [for the delay],” Qabbani told reporters after chairing a committee meeting at Parliament.

“According to the minutes of our committee, we … have been asking the Transport and Public Works Ministry to forward a public transportation plan for 10 years and we still haven’t received one,” he added.

For the past year, Qabbani continued, representatives from the ministry have not been attending the committee’s sessions. “The committee decided to inform the speaker of this matter because it is unacceptable, dangerous and a kind of disregard to Parliament.”

The lawmaker said he called for proclaiming Beirut a pedestrian city in 2015 as “traffic will come to a stop from congestion and people will be forced to walk if we continue like this.”

He said that Beirut’s Municipality and Isle de France, the municipality of Paris and its suburbs, have agreed to implement a “soft transport” project to encourage Beirut residents to walk or bicycle in the city.