Thursday, May 06, 2010

Gulf News

Abu Dhabi The Emirates Identity Authority (Eida) yesterday started giving on the spot appointments to applicants, with crowds continuing to throng registration centres.

More than three thousand people queued up at the centre in Al Mushrif in Abu Dhabi yesterday morning. Many of them said they joined the queue late on Tuesday or early yesterday.

To control the crowd, Eida started giving on the spot appointments to applicants in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, a senior official told Gulf News yesterday.

"We implemented it in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain centres, which witnessed more rush than the centres in other emirates; but we are considering extending it [on the spot appointments] soon to other emirates as well," said Abdul Aziz Sultan Al Maamri, Head of Public Relations at Eida.

Guarantees

The on the spot appointments system ensures that everybody in queue at least gets an appointment, he said.

"The centres in Sharjah and Ajman are also crowded, but there is no rush in Dubai," he said. Some of the applicants who joined the early morning queue at Al Mushrif were still waiting in the afternoon to gain entry to the centre.

Most of the applicants, whom Gulf News spoke to, said they took the pains to wait in queue as they had to access certain services from the Abu Dhabi Traffic Police Department.

The Ministry of Interior made the ID card mandatory to access the services of traffic departments across the country from Sunday, May 2. This prompted hundreds of people to rush to Eida centres to apply for ID cards.

Hakeem Mohammad, 21, from Pakistan, who reached the UAE recently to work as a driver, said he is desperate to get an ID card. "I have to apply for a driving licence immediately, so I am here," said Mohammad who joined the queue at 4am yesterday but could not enter the centre until yesterday afternoon. "This is the third day, I am trying my best."

The Eida staff at Al Mushrif centre said they gave the appointments until May 13, by yesterday afternoon without disclosing the numbers. "We dealt with more than 2,000 people today. We have a daily capacity for about 600 registrations; but overcrowding affects the output," said a staff member.

Abu Dhabi As many as ten ID card counters, capable of processing up to 500 applications, are to be set up at the Abu Dhabi traffic department from early next week, Emirates Identity Authority (Eida) officials have said.

Although Eida said on Tuesday that a tent equipped with 20 registration counters will be set up from yesterday at the department, officials said the facility would only be functional by next week.

Since the ID card issued by the authority was made mandatory by the Interior Ministry from May 2, to use any traffic and licensing services across the country, the ID card registration counters have witnessed an unprecedented rush.

As Gulf News reported on Tuesday, currently there is only one registration counter available within the traffic department in the capital. This counter, capable of handling just 20 applications a day, has been unable to keep up, following which officials decided to make more counters available to the public.

Disappointment

"We will set up a tent with 10 work stations from early next week. It will work from morning to evening and could process 500 applications in all, each day," said Yousuf Al Katbi, Director of Customer Services at Eida.

Residents who turned up at the traffic department yesterday morning returned disappointed as they were told the new counters were yet to be set up.

"I have to appear for my driving test and am worried about how to get the ID card on time," Ziaur Rahman, an Indian software engineer, said.

By Binsal Abdul Kader

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