Oman university students' car pooling drive gains traction

Muscat: A car pooling system has been developed by students at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU).
The society ‘Friends Group’ at Sultan Qaboos University launched the “Kalbunian” Campaign, which aims to help students, who do not own cars, to be transported by volunteer students who own cars.
The students wishing for transport and volunteers can register via an electronic form and fill the personal information, such as name, telephone number and residential area.
On the implementation of the transport service, student Bader Al Hinai, said: “After sorting the data, we will create groups in the WhatsApp application in which participants are distributed according to residential areas, as it becomes easy to coordinate.
“Any car owner wanting to leave the university determines the exit hour in the group and the students who need transport at the same time will be in contact with him,” Al Hinai add.
Another student, Noha Al Rawahi, added: “There is a good response from the students for the campaign, as it will solve the problem of transportation, which is suffered by number of students.”
“After the launch of the idea, the number of those wishing to be transported has reached about 54 students and 30 volunteers, and we are working on spreading the idea by using various media channels to increase the number of beneficiaries.”