Abra all set to become most popular option for travelling

Speaking to Khaleej Times, Abdul Aziz Malik, Director of the Department, said yesterday that the study, which is expected to be complete well within this year, is aimed at considering options to minimise or shift traffic from Dubai’s often-clogged road network. “We are studying the possibility of using the waterway to connect Dubai with Sharjah and other neighbouring emirates. The issue at hand is very complex, and the studying and planning of such a move would take some time,” he said.

Declining to give a specific time-table for the implementation of the idea, Malik explained that the study would be followed by a design stage, and more studies would have to be carried out to gauge the demand for the service. Only when the department has set final operational procedures will the private operators be invited to ply their vessels to serve the commuters, he said.

Malik said that while private operators will run the service, the ticket rate will be fixed by the Dubai Municipality, which will also be the regulating authority for the service providers.

The waterway is not being looked up to only for inter-emirate transport, but within Dubai as well. The abras, used annually by over 18 million people in Dubai to cross the creek, can help minimise traffic congestion on the emirate’s roads if the route of the service runs along the creekside, Malik pointed out. Abra stations, he added, could be converted into tourist attractions, complete with shopping malls, traditional souks, and other recreational facilities. “It is not always necessary that the abras are used to cross the creek. They can utilised to run parallel to the creek in order to reduce the heavy traffic on the roads,” he said.

“We know about the methodology used in other countries to integrate water transport and other public transport system. We can think of this seriously as we have 18 million passengers using the Abras. In addition to this, the abra stations could be transformed to beautiful shopping malls to attract tourists, as they are doing in Venice,” Malik said.

Nearly 150 abras operate in the creek on two routes: from Bur Dubai to Deira Old Souq, and from Bur Dubai Souq to AI Sabkha. More than 40,000 people use this service daily to commute between the two banks of the Dubai Creek on weekdays, and over 60,000 people on weekends.

In the latest phase of the development, the Dubai Municipality has commissioned a project to upgrade the four existing abra stations and construct two new stations along the Creek aimed at enhancing passenger safety, amenity value, and the efficiency of the system to meet the future demand of 19.4 million passengers in the year 2015.

Construction on the project commenced in December last year and will continue for twelve months. To minimise the disruption of any service, and to prevent any inconvenience to the passengers, a phased out construction programme has been adopted by the department. There are also plans to replace the traditional diesel-powered abras to the more eco-friendly solar powered boats.