The Rail Agency in the RTA participated in the two day MEED Dubai Mega Projects Conference that concluded recently at the Murooj Rotana Hotel. Present at the conference from the Rail Agency was Abdul Redha Abu Hassan, Director of Planning and Design and a team of senior Rail officials. The conference brought together mega projects.
As one of the main speakers for the second day of the conference, Abdul Redha briefed the audience on the developments of the Metro Project, and future plans. "Our studies reveal that the average daily trips will reach 14,300,000 by 2020 and thus the RTA is developing a comprehensive plan to accommodate the projected burgeoning traffic in the emirate," he said. "We are working towards the development of an integrated transport network so that people can be encouraged to use public transport and reduce their dependency on private vehicles. Currently only 5% of the total population uses public transport and the number of cars per thousand people are 541. Studies also prove that there is one car per 1.84 residents and by introducing and increasing public transport like the Dubai Metro we hope to reduce the congestion by 30 to 35%.", he added.
He affirmed that currently construction of the Red and Green Lines is on schedule. To highlight a few milestones, the civil design for the lines was completed before schedule in March 2007, the tunneling from Union Square to Burjuman completed on time while the tunneling scheduled to complete in February 2008 is ahead of progressing ahead of schedule. The viaduct construction is progressing as planned and the contractor is raising levels of productivity. The manufacturing and testing of trains in progress and the first set of trains are due to arrive in March 2008. We have a forum held every three months to check facts and focus efforts, attended by Consultant and contractors decision makers and leaders.", he added.
He said, "To encourage people from all walks of life to use the Metro, the trains are being designed to have a women's and children's section, a gold section in the first car and four silvers cabins being the general class. Our stations have theme colors inspired by four elements of nature which include water, air, fire and earth. Various modes of transport will be integrated to enhance the use of public transport which will be relatively economical that private vehicles. For example, we will introduce buses from Sharjah to Dubai to drop people to the Metro station so boarding the Metro will be convenient."
Plans of extension of the Red Line to Abu Dhabi border and Green line after Jaddaf were discussed. Eng. Abdulredha concluded his presentation by listing the opportunities the Metro would provide some of which include better airport links, integrated transport approach, use of Trans oriented development, developing a Rail Network solution etc.
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© Press Release 2008
