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TGA Public Transport Project in Tabuk Entails 25% Electric Buses

TGA Public Transport Project in Tabuk Entails 25% Electric Buses
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TGA Public Transport Project in Tabuk Entails 25% Electric Buses

TGA Public Transport Project in Tabuk Entails 25% Electric Buses

The Transport General Authority (TGA) has introduced the Kingdom's first public transport project, featuring clean energy-powered buses in Tabuk city.
The project entails introducing 25% eco-friendly electric buses.
The event was inaugurated by Governor of Tabuk Region Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz; attending was Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing Majid bin Abdullah Al-Hogail, SPA reported.
In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency, TGA General Manager Dr. Rayan AlHazmi said that the public bus transportation project in Tabuk aims to enhance infrastructure and improve the region residents' quality of life, SPA reported.

The environment-friendly electric buses run on clean energy, in a first in the Kingdom. With four lanes, 30 buses and 106 designated bus stops, the project provides efficient public transportation services for Tabuk's residents and visitors; they operate 18 hours a day.
Breaking down the project, AlHazmi said that a lane covers 34.5 km and has 30 stops; it passes through key locations like the University of Tabuk, Saudi Post and Saudia Airlines. Another lane is 43.8 km long and includes 27 stops; it passes through the military city, airport and King Khalid Military City's Northern Area Armed Forces Hospital. A third lane extends over 21.7 km, has 27 stops, and passes through locations such as the Emirate of Tabuk region, Eid prayer hall, King Khalid Hospital and the central park. The fourth lane, stretching over 28.1 km and having 22 stops, services locations such as Park Mall, Al-Muruj District Park, and the University of Tabuk's Eastern Gate.
AlHazmi emphasized that through this project, the authority aims to improve safety and the quality of life, make transportation more convenient and reduce traffic congestion in Tabuk. It also focuses on creating job opportunities, lowering carbon emission and combating environmental pollution, in line with the National Strategy for Transport and Logistics Services.

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Chili Paste Heats Up Dishes at Northeastern Tunisia’s Harissa Festival

Chahida Boufaied, owner of Dar Chahida Lel Oula, prepares the Harissa in her house in Nabeul, Tunisia, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ons Abid)
Chahida Boufaied, owner of Dar Chahida Lel Oula, prepares the Harissa in her house in Nabeul, Tunisia, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ons Abid)
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Chili Paste Heats Up Dishes at Northeastern Tunisia’s Harissa Festival

Chahida Boufaied, owner of Dar Chahida Lel Oula, prepares the Harissa in her house in Nabeul, Tunisia, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ons Abid)
Chahida Boufaied, owner of Dar Chahida Lel Oula, prepares the Harissa in her house in Nabeul, Tunisia, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ons Abid)

For years, Tunisians have been picking bright red peppers, combining them with garlic, vinegar and spices and turning them into a saucy spread called harissa. The condiment is a national staple and pastime, found in homes, restaurants and food stalls throughout the coastal North African nation.

Brick-red, spicy and tangy, it can be scooped up on bread drizzled with olive oil or dabbed onto plates of eggs, fish, stews or sandwiches. Harissa can be sprinkled atop merguez sausages, smeared on savory pastries called brik or sandwiches called fricassées, The Associated Press reported.
In Nabeul, the largest city in Tunisia’s harissa-producing Cap Bon region, local chef and harissa specialist Chahida Boufayed called it “essential to Tunisian cuisine.”
“Harissa is a love story,” she said at a festival held in honor of the chili paste sauce in the northeastern Tunisian city of Nabeul earlier this month. “I don’t make it for the money.”
Aficionados from across Tunisia and the world converged on the 43-year-old mother’s stand to try her recipe. Surrounded by strings of drying baklouti red peppers, she described how she grows her vegetables and blends them with spices to make harissa.
The region’s annual harissa festival has grown in the two-plus years since the United Nations cultural organization, UNESCO, recognized the sauce on a list of items of intangible cultural heritage, said Zouheir Belamin, the president of the association behind the event, a Nabeul-based preservation group. He said its growing prominence worldwide was attracting new tourists to Tunisia, specifically to Nabeul.
UNESCO in 2022 called harissa an integral part of domestic provisions and the daily culinary and food traditions of Tunisian society, adding it to a list of traditions and practices that mark intangible cultural heritage.
Already popular across North Africa as well as in France, the condiment is gaining popularity throughout the world from the United States to China.
Seen as sriracha’s North African cousin, harissa is typically prepared by women who sun-dry harvested red peppers and then deseed, wash and ground them. Its name comes from “haras” – the Arabic verb for “to crush” – because of the next stage in the process.
The finished peppers are combined it with a mixture of garlic cloves, vinegar, salt, olive oil and spices in a mortar and pestle to make a fragrant blend. Variants on display at Nabeul’s Jan. 3-5 festival used cumin, coriander and different spice blends or types of peppers, including smoked ones, to create pastes ranging in color from burgundy to crimson.
“Making harissa is an art. If you master it, you can create wonders,” Boufayed said.