The Centre for Geographical Information System (CGIS) says it has installed more than 85,000 number plates across the country, reaching 90 percent of buildings, according to local media reports.

CGIS is a division of the Ministry of Municipality & Urban Planning, and its property identification system, which would serve as public addresses, seeks to unify and replace various numbering labels used by utility companies and emergency assistance agencies.

The new plates display building numbers alongside zone and street numbers outside of commercial, residential and government properties. Notably though, individual apartments and offices inside listed buildings will not be addressed until phase 2 of the project, which could take another two years.

Although the concept is pretty basic, it’s a feature Qatar has yet to have fully implemented. The new address plates also include embedded radio frequency identification (RFID) chips that service personnel can use to access all the legacy numbers, i.e. from Qtel, Kahramaa, etc.

Another neat outcome of the project: CGIS has launched a searchable, interactive map that lets you navigate by area, zone or even building types (commercial, residential etc.), which is more comprehensive and accurate (if slower) than Google Maps. Clicking on specific properties will even give you its name and building number.

There’s also supposed to be a mobile app in the works called Al-Murshid (The Guide), although we had trouble finding it.

What do you think – about time? 

Credit: Photo showing old and new street number plates courtesy of CGIS