Celebrating 15 years of construction

On Sunday, November 1, 2020, Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) will celebrate its 15th anniversary, which also marks the 11th Public Transport Day.

RTA’s era has been marked by successes and achievements through its implementation of strategic plans for upgrading the infrastructure of roads, mass transit systems, pedestrian facilities, and traffic safety. It has also constructed and operated a host of strategic projects for increasing road networks and public transport services.

RTA’s drive has been characterised by its focus on sustainability and a significant shift in public transit services as evidenced by the construction of the Dubai Metro, Dubai Tram, new bus stations, and improved bus and marine transport services.

It has also constructed of roads, bridges, and flyovers; introduced smart technologies and apps, and implemented transport policies to achieve an integrated and sustainable transport system.

Marking the occasion, the director-general and chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the RTA, HE Mattar Mohammed Al Tayer thanked the wise leadership of the UAE and said: “RTA is forging ahead with projects and initiatives to improve public transport infrastructure and services, roads, and the standard of living in the city to bring happiness to inhabitants, be it citizens, residents, or visitors.

“RTA also endeavours to drive the smart transformation of customer services and improve its business model. For this sake, it focuses on adopting corporate agility practices such that it will be capable to keep pace with the successive changes and the global trends and at the same maintain its leading role in the industry.”

Indicators and Achievements

Dubai boasts of top-notch roads and transport infrastructure characterised by its quality and wide geographical coverage of the entire Emirate.

By the end of 2019, the total length of roads network increased to about 18,000 lane-kilometres compared to 8,715 lane-kilometres in 2006.

Similarly, the number of pedestrian bridges and underpasses increased sharply from 13 bridges in 2006 to 119 pedestrian bridges and underpasses in 2019.

RTA’s efforts to improve traffic safety has reduced road accident-related fatalities from 22 cases per 100,000 of the population in 2006 to only 2.3 cases per 100,000 of the population in 2019. Equally, the total length of cycling tracks increased from 10km in 2006 to as much as 425km in 2019.

Al Tayer added: “These improvements are responsible for placing the UAE as the first country in the quality of roads worldwide throughout the years 2013-2017 and ranked first in the satisfaction index of roads and highways system 2020.

“The improvements in Dubai’s public transit networks contributed to increasing the share of public transport in people’s mobility from 6% in 2006 to 18% in 2019. This has boosted the competitiveness of the Emirate in hosting global events such as Expo 2020. RTA has set a goal to push the share of public transport means in people’s mobility to 26% by 2030.

“Dubai Metro, which has completed 11 years, lifted about 1.6 billion riders and achieved exceptional performance indicators in the punctuality of journeys clocking a dazzling 99.7% rate. The Metro has achieved a high assessment rate over 80% in the safety and security systems by the UK’s Office of Rail & Road.”

Customers Happiness and Timely Adaptation

RTA offers 317 services via a wide spectrum of channels including its website, smart apps, call centre, seven customers happiness centres, and smart kiosks.

It has recently developed a package of services that rendered services more accessible such as Hala e-hailing taxis, which slashed the waiting time for taxis from 12 minutes to 3.5 minutes.

Al Tayer said: “RTA also launched the Ferry service between Dubai and Sharjah, the smart taxi (Tech Taxi) offering unique technologies, and the chatbot Mahboub through the website and WhatsApp.”

Over the past years, RTA has succeeded in adapting to government changes and directions such as the migration to the smart city, smart mobility based on autonomous vehicles, the fast adaptation to challenges and changes, resetting of priorities and benefiting from existing resources.

Al Tayer added: “RTA accomplished the Dubai Metro project on time despite the economic crises that hit the world at that time. It also completed sophisticated projects such as the Dubai Water Canal, the course of which intersected several vital roads and localities such as the Sheikh Zayed Road, Al Khail Road, Jumeirah and Al Wasl.

“RTA quickly adapted to the National Sterilisation Programme during the COVID-19 lockdown and switched smoothly to a remote working mode, which is credited to the high operational readiness of RTA’s technological infrastructure. Thus, RTA was able to maintain its business continuity as usual and went about the completion of its projects on schedule.”

Shared and Flexible Transport

RTA has covered non-conventional mobility means such as shared bikes, cars, scooters, and buses-on-demand. Other forms of micro-mobility loom on the horizon such as autonomous and individual mobility means.

Al Tayer explained: “RTA currently provides Hala e-hailing service in partnership with Careem, where about 5,500 vehicles are registered in the app. Since its launch in May 2019, Hala has carried out about 8 million trips. RTA also offered bike share through the Careem Bike service encompassing 780 bikes at 78 docking stations. It has just started the trial run of e-scooter at five areas and deployed buses-on-demand at five different areas in Dubai: Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard, Dubai Internet City, 2nd of December St, Al-Rigga, and Jumeirah Lake Towers.”

The construction of cycling tracks is in line with the directives of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President, Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai, to improve the quality of life, bring happiness to people, and switch to a sustainable transport model characterised by minimal pollution to the environment.

It also responds to the directives of HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince, Chairman of the Executive Council, to make Dubai a bicycle-friendly city that provides suitable mobility options and encourages people to practice cycling as a sport.

Accordingly, RTA embarked on the construction of cycling tracks in several areas of the Emirate. The total length of tracks constructed so far amount to 425km. RTA intends to extend them further to as much as 688km by 2025.

Expo 2020 Readiness

Al Tayer confirmed that the RTA has accomplished most roads and transport construction projects listed under the masterplan for hosting Dubai Expo 2020.

“Last July, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President, Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, officially inaugurated Route 2020 for extending the Red Line of Dubai Metro 15km from the Jebel Ali Station to the site of Expo 2020,” Al Tayer said.

In the Q1 2020, RTA completed all phases of Roads Leading to Expo Project, which included the construction of intersections on Expo Street, improving the intersection of the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road and Expo Street, and constructing entry points for the Expo area from the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road, and the intersections of Expo Street with the Sheikh Zayed bin Hamdan Al Nahyan Street.

The RTA also completed the construction of the intersection of the Sheikh Zayed bin Hamdan Al Nahyan Street with Al Yalayes Street at Dubai Investment Park (DIP) as well as the intersection of the Emirates Road with Expo Street.

Previously, RTA completed the improvement of the Airport Road to accommodate the anticipated growth in the number of passengers using the Dubai International Airport.

Al Tayer concluded: “RTA is currently working on the construction of permanent bus stops to serve Expo 2020. This project covers 17 stops including the recently opened Ghubaiba Station, Jaffiliya and Union Stations and the bus station connected to Etisalat Metro Station.

“The plan encompasses the procurement of 614 buses and six temporary stations to serving Expo 2020. Two of them are in Dubai Silicon Oasis and the International City, and the other four are in the Dubai Maritime City, Palm Jumeirah, Business Bay 1, and Al-Meydan.