RTA to spend 2.5 billion dirhams on projects this year

Dubai: The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) will spend 2.5 billion dirhams on roads and transportation projects during this year, a senior official said.

Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of RTA, said the basic work of RTA did not get affected by the global recession.

In a programme aired on Dubai TV tonight (Thursday), Al Tayer said traffic movement on the roads here did not get affected by the global recession and recession did not lead to less traffic on the roads.

The evidence is the constant increase in the number of registered cars which increased from 350,000 cars when the RTA was established to 1,1 billion cars currently, with an increase of 17 per cent compared to other countries in the world.

He said even Salik and taxi incomes did not decline, which means number of cars did not decline.

He said indicators show recession had very low effect on the transportation network here.

He said the RTA did not cancel or shelve any project but did some reprogramming of their schedules.

Al Tayer said road projects are expected to be completed in two years and will be able to cater to eight million people.

He said the RTA has completed between 40 per cent to 50 per cent of road projects in Dubai and their primary phases are expected to be completed after two years.

Al Tayer said the RTA has been able to reduce Dubai's losses in traffic congestion from 5,9 billion dirhams to 4 billion dirhams. He said this reflects the success achieved by the strategic plan to develop road and transportation system despite the fact that the metro and tram have not started yet.

He also spoke about Dubai metro and said it will carry 17 per cent of the total public transportation out of 30 per cent which is served by other public transportation means.

Al Tayer also said that the metro tariff will be affordable for everyone and there will also be a unified card to use all kinds of public transportation.