Dubai: Dubai Municipality on Wednesday inaugurated a Smart Gate at Mushrif Park that allows visitors to use Roads and Transport Authority’s (RTA’s) Nol transport cards to pay the park entrance fees.
The Smart Gate allows the customer to use the card as a ticket to gain access to public utilities or use a mobile phone that identifies the Nol card of the customer.
Senior officials from the municipality and the RTA were present at the launch of the new service. Abdullah Al Madani, CEO of the RTA’s Corporate Technology Support Services Sector, said: “We are delighted to implement this strategic initiative with Dubai Municipality, one of the RTA’s strategic partners to make our customers from different segments of society happy.”
He added that this initiative is part of the Smart Gateway project, which consists of installing Nol card vending machines and smart gates at the entrances to Dubai Municipality’s public parks, so that customers can pay fees to enter the public parks in the emirate using Nol cards.
The work on the project of Smart Gates in public parks in Dubai started in June 2016, with the aim to complete the entire project by July 2017.
Based on an agreement signed with Dubai Municipality, the project includes the development of the system at four public parks: Mushrif Park, Zabeel Park, Mamzar Park and Creek Park.
The e-gates provided by RTA will allow for the automatic control of parks in all circumstances including holidays, free entry days, crises and emergencies, and other cases that require the use of these facilities by the public.
The Nol Silver, Gold and Blue cards, as well as special-edition cards designed by RTA can be used to pay park entrance fees. The cost of entry stays the same, and Dubai Municipality will be responsible for determining these fares.
Work is on in the three targeted parks, other than Mushrif Park, to install gates and other e-gate equipment.
The municipality and RTA have signed an agreement for operation and collection charges to the public utilities of the municipality in the emirate using the Nol card as part of the Dubai government’s efforts to strengthen cooperation between government agencies and institutions in the interest of the local community and in support of the Smart City Initiative launched by the government.
