Border drop-off yard and quarantine camps to be completed before end of May

AMMAN — The construction of quarantine camps for freight drivers and truck drop-off yard at the Omari Border Crossing are to be completed before the end of May, Land Transport Regulatory Commission (LTRC) Director General Salah Louzi said.

The camps will accommodate about 700 drivers arriving to the Kingdom through the Omari crossing, at an estimated cost of JD5 per day, including board and lodging. The government will bear the remainder of the costs, Louzi added in a statement made available to The Jordan Times on Thursday.

LTRC general director confirmed that the Ministry of Public Works and Housing is acting swiftly in order to have the “back-to-back” handling yards ready by the end of May, noting that the first handling operation was on Thursday at the Omari crossing.

The space allocated to the handling yards covers an area of about 50 dunums, at a total cost of JD5 million, according to Louzi.

Truck drivers are being accommodated in military schools in the Azraq region, he said, noting that they would be transferred to the shelters after examinations each time they enter the Kingdom.

Through prior coordination, freight drivers would deliver their trucks to other drivers from inside the Kingdom who will then unload the cargo at the intended destination, Louzi further said.

Drivers of each truck will remain at the shelter until his truck returns to the Omari crossing, and then the original driver is escorted by security personnel to the border crossing to take his truck and leave Jordan to Saudi Arabia, the statement added.