Free Wi-Fi at 50 Dubai bus stops

Dubai - The project includes 50 smart shelters, 150 solar-powered shelters.

A contract has been awarded for the construction of 400 air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned bus shelters in Dubai. The project will be complete by the end of 2017, and will bring the total number of bus shelters to as much as 1,295.

The new shelters will cover areas in different parts of Dubai on the bases of population density, and feedback received from bus riders. Phase II includes the construction of about 50 smart air-conditioned shelters fitted with free internet service, as well as the Smart Café for selling snacks and refreshments and several smart services.

The Board of Executive Directors of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), chaired by Mattar Al Tayer, Director General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, endorsed the award of a contract for starting the construction of Phase II of Air-Conditioned Bus Shelters Project.

The contract, which covers the construction of 400 air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned bus shelters, has been awarded to Right Angle Media Company on the basis of public-private-partnership (Design-Build-Operate-Transfer Model).

RTA has started the initial phase of transforming 100 air-conditioned shelters into smart shelters in cooperation with Right Angle Company. 50 of these smart shelters will be completed this year and the remaining 50 will be completed next January. Accordingly, the total number of smart shelters will rise by the end of Phase II to 150 shelters.

Phase II of Air-Conditioned Bus Shelters Project culminates the success of the initial phase of the project, which covered the construction of 895 air-conditioned bus shelters distributed over 656 bus stops.

"The Air-Conditioned Bus Shelters Project is part of a master plan to leverage the public transport sector along with associated infrastructure in the Emirate with the aim of bringing comfort to riders," said Al Tayer.

The focus is to protect riders during the blazing summer season. RTA seeks to push the share of public transport in the daily mobility of persons in the Emirate from 6 per cent in 2006 to 20 per cent in 2020 and further to 30 per cent by 2030. In 2014, RTA succeeded in raising this rate to as much as 14 per cent," said Al Tayer.

Solar power

It also includes the construction of about 150 shelters featuring the new design of solar-powered shelters involving a creative solution for providing shelters in areas where electric power is not available. These shelters are fitted with solar panels, which will generate electricity enough to power lights of the bus stop as well as billboards.

"Providing electricity to power air-conditioned shelters in some remote areas was one of the key challenges confronting planners at the initial stage of the project," he said.

"Shelters will be fabricated of a reinforced polyester-covered aluminium in order to protect the structures from tough elements. The seats are made of rigorous, low-heat absorption materials for the convenience of users," he added. LED lights will be used to power billboards to economize on the use of electric power.

Smart shelters

This initiative is aligned with RTA's strategic goal of bringing happiness to people and encouraging them to use public transportation. It also involves an improvement of the public transport infrastructure in a creative style to make it similar to metro stations, and a transformation to a smart city.

The smart air-conditioned shelter offers a wide range of services to bus riders including a free Wi-Fi internet courtesy of Du, NOL card selling and recharging, mobile phone top-ups, payment of bills of government departments, and power-charging of mobile phones.

In addition to the Smart Kiosk, the shelter will display passenger information, offer RTA services as well as interactive and promotional ads, in addition to screens displaying information about RTA services, besides the selling of refreshments and snacks.

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com