UAE | Traffic and Transport

Metro to care for special needs passengers

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is the first body committed to the Cabinet code on providing special transportation services to people with special needs and help them merge with society, Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA, said.

  • Staff Report
  • Published: 00:30 September 12, 2008
  • Gulf News

Dubai: The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is the first body committed to the Cabinet code on providing special transportation services to people with special needs and help them merge with society, Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA, said.

He was talking on the occasion of signing in the register of Love Note, "Resalat Hob", which includes signatures of high-calibre officials in the UAE to acknowledge the noble deeds of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Al Tayer said Shaikh Mohammad pays great attention to people with special needs as he is keen on providing complete care and job opportunities to let them integrate with the entire society.

He added that Shaikh Mohammad's attention to people with special needs is not only restricted in the UAE, but has also been extended to many countries worldwide through supporting institutions and centres of this group.

He pointed out the Noor Dubai Initiative which aims at prevention and treatment of blindness and low vision among more than a million people in the world.

Rights issue

Al Tayer said the initiative reflects Shaikh Mohammad's belief in the rights of people with special needs - their rights to educational, health and recreational care and right to mitigate with the rest of the society.

"Presenting the scheme of Dubai Metro, Shaikh Mohammad's directives stressed that the project should consider people with special needs.

"In the light of these guidelines, RTA has provided a series of facilities to help them move easily to the metro coaches, that include guiding and notifying them by audio and video transmitters as well as cash machines and escalators in each station," Al Tayer said.

The Love Note, or "Resalat Hob", project, launched in July, is a joint initiative by Rashid's Paediatric Therapy and Child Care Centre and Al Deyaa Media Production.

It aims to offer the largest ever love note to Shaikh Mohammad by the children in the UAE.

The love note will be presented in December - coinciding with the UAE National Day and International Day of Disabled Persons. It is in appreciation of the humanitarian efforts of Shaikh Mohammad.

The RTA recently received a delegation from Dubai Ambulance Services Centre, headed by Khalifa Hassan Al Darrai, CEO of the Centre.

The meeting explored possibilities to promote relations between RTA and the centre.

The delegation was briefed on the specifications of modern buses imported by the RTA from the best suppliers worldwide. "This covered acquainting the delegation with the articulated buses and the mechanism adopted in testing and maintaining them," said Salim Abdul Rahman Al Saleh, Director of Maintenance and Services Department at RTA's Public Transport Agency.

Al Saleh said the maintenance and services department reviewed, with the centre, a number of important aspects such as boosting air-conditioning, security and safety.

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