Dubai: The website to obtain permits to move around Dubai for essential reasons during the 24-hour sterilisation programme can receive 1,200 requests per minute but sometimes delays are experienced due to the sheer amount of people who are on the site trying to apply, an official from Dubai Police has said.
Brigadier Saif Muhair Al Mazroui, Director of the Traffic Department at Dubai Police said that despite the huge capacity of the permit website delays can happen due to so many people using the site.
“The move permit site can deal with 1,200 permit requests per minute,” he said. “Sometimes issuing the permit is delayed because of online traffic,” he added.
Al Mazroui urged public to get the permits only for essential purposes like buying food, medicine or if they have a hospital appointment.
“Using Artificial intelligence in policing helps to identify people’s movement in Dubai,” he said. “The smart system updates all the time with people’s movement to know if the person has violated the movement order. Having the permit doesn’t mean people can travel across different areas in the emirate,” he added.
Al Mazroui, said that people should get their essential needs from food outlets inside their districts and buy enough to last so they don’t have to keep going out every day.
“The supermarket became like a mall for some people who are using it as an excuse to go out walking. People should buy enough food for a week in order not to go out many times,” he said.
Meanwhile, Colonel Turki Bin Faris, Director of the Command and Control centre at Dubai Police, said that the emergency call number 999, is receiving about 27,000 calls per day since the 24-hour sterilisation programme was announced.
“Last year we received 5.4 million calls on 999 with a daily rate of 20,000 calls. After the announcement of the national sterlisation programme, we are receiving about 27,000 calls per day,” he said.
Bin Faris urged the public to call 901 for non-emergencies and to keep 999 available for emergencies only.
“Dubai Police is the closest entity to the public and we are ready to answer their enquiries. People are supporting us, but we call on them to use 999 only for emergencies,” he added.
Punishment for violating movement restrictions
According to the law, people violating the movement restriction will be subject to Dh2,000 fine.
People who caught by radars will receive a text message on their phones to alert them about the fine.
