UAE nationals will be trained and appointed for the construction and running of the Dubai Light Rail Project (DLRP).
The Dubai Metro Higher Committee, which met yesterday in Dubai with Qasim Sultan, Director General of the Municipality, in the chair, emphasised the need that major contracting companies involved in the Dubai Metro project should be encouraged to appoint nationals in most jobs because they are the ones who would have to run the metro once it starts operating.
The committee stressed the need to train UAE nationals for occupying the leading and supervisory jobs at the Metro.
The committee also discussed the need to appoint a separate company for running and maintaining the Metro after the project's completion.
Sultan said the Metro's plans are going ahead in line with the directives of His Highness Shaikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai; Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance and Industry, and General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and UAE Defence Minister, all of whom have emphasised the need to provide job opportunities for the national cadres in managing and operating major projects of the country.
He said that a large-scale marketing and promotion campaign about the Metro would soon be launched to acquaint the public with the pioneer role it is going to play as a mass transit mode.
The metro will also unveil its special logo that was recently approved by Shaikh Hamdan.
Nasser Ahmad Saeed, Assistant Director General of Dubai Municipality for Metro and Public Transport and General Coordinator for Dubai Metro, briefed the committee members about the project's progress of works over the last two months.
Saeed said that a mechanism was agreed with DURL (Dubai Urban Rapid Link), the consortium undertaking the project, to dig tunnels in various parts of the city as well as with suppliers of the electronic control systems for the Metro.
The committee also discussed proposals regarding the construction of a permanent headquarters for the Metro and a control centre. In total, there will be two offices for the Metro.
The committee decided to soon lay the foundation stone of the Metro in a key area of Dubai.
The committee plans to run Dubai Metro as a major investment project in order to provide the public with the most appropriate mass transit and public transport facilities.
Gulf News
