Mohammad orders tougher checks

Dubai: His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has ordered enhancement of road monitoring systems to ensure smooth traffic flow and to combat reckless driving.

He ordered officials concerned to take strict and immediate action against violators without showing any leniency towards anyone.

Shaikh Mohammad that he would personally be watching the traffic situation until it is resolved. "I want to see practical results on the ground [to ensure smooth flow of traffic] and the road users should also feel the difference," he told senior officials from the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and the Dubai Police in a meeting yesterday, according to a WAM report.

Present at the meeting were Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council; Shaikh Maktoum Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Technology and Media Free Zone Authority and Mohammad Abdulla Al Gergawi, Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs.

Engineer Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the RTA and Brigadier Jamal Mohammad Al Merri, Acting Dubai Police Chief attended the meeting. Shaikh Mohammad had created the RTA in November last year to focus on issues related to roads, traffic and transportation.

Shaikh Mohammad ordered them to take immediate measures to improve traffic safety rules and create awareness through media.

He also instructed them to increase police patrols on roads, increase the number of mobile and fixed radars to check reckless and speeding motorists.

Shaikh Mohammad was also briefed by Al Tayer on some proposals by the RTA regarding monitoring of roads, improving traffic conditions, road projects, increasing the level of traffic safety, intensifying traffic awareness, tough driving tests system, public transport projects and specifying lanes for heavy vehicles.