Dubai: The Road and Transport Authority (RTA) plans to continue spending billions of dollars on infrastructure development to cope with the population growth of Dubai, a senior official said on Monday.
The RTA spent about Dh86 billion (about $23.3 billion) since 2006, out of which 75 per cent was for capital expenditure.
The projects that are currently undertaken includes the extension of the Red Line of Dubai Metro to the Dubai Expo site.
The 15 kilometres extension will cost Dh7 billion, and around Dh17 billion will be invested on separate roads projects.
Dubai Metro's 15-km extension to the Dubai Expo site (Red Line) will cost Dh7 billion ($1.89b), while another Dh17 billion ($4.6b) will be poured into new roads projects. Extension of the Green Line would cost about Dh10 billion $2.7b) and expected to be implemented by 2020 or 2022.
“The total [future] investments depend on the phases of development. The total investment would be billions of dollars,” Abdul Moshin Younis, chief executive officer of strategy and corporate development, Roads and Transport Authority, told Gulf News at the Dubai Investment Forum conference.
“We believe that continuation of spending on infrastructure will have a great impact on GDP of the economy,” Younis said.
Infrastructure plays an important role in the GDP of an economy. He said quoting Flash Economic, a research publication, that 1 euro invested in transportation and infrastructure raises the GDP level on impact by 14 euros.
The UAE is ranked number one in the world in terms of quality of roads.
Massive investments
“All these projects require a lot of investments or capital and RTA looks at different options to fund these projects. One of the scheme that we look is to encourage the private sector for participating in the PPP projects,” said Younis, adding “private sector plays a significant role in terms of adding value in terms of efficiency and design of the markets”.
A few PPP projects done by the RTA was implementation of the fist phase of construction of air-conditioned bus stops. A running tender called Union Oasis with an estimated cost of Dh800 million and a truck rest area with an investment of Dh110 million is also underway.
The RTA expects to implement many projects including Creek Crossing at an estimated cost of Dh4.5 billion among others in the next 3-5 years.
Extension of the Green Line of Dubai Metro would cost about Dh10 billion and expected to be implemented by 2020 or 2022.
Other projects include multi-storey car parks and the second phase of air-conditioned bus stops at 400 new locations at an estimated cost of Dh100 million.
