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Digital navigation system launched

Finding a location in Dubai and opting for a route with less traffic to reach the destination will now be possible through your gadgets, thanks to a new comprehensive digital navigation system launched by the Dubai Municipality.

The Emirates National Coordinates Grid system now available through www.mylocation.ae will be fully functional by mid-2013, officials said on Wednesday.

The digital maps on the system will give directions to any place or any building in Dubai with just a click on a smartphone, tablet PC, notebook or navigation device. Live traffic data will be available, enabling users to know on-the-spot traffic situations on their route and divert their journey to roads with less traffic.

Announcing the launch of the system on Wednesday, municipality Director-General Hussain Nasser Lootah said the system will be updated as much as possible as per the requirement from individuals and companies.

The GIS Department of the municipality has tied up with digital map supplier Navteq and leading GPS maker Garmin for the project. The entities will jointly issue “a special location number and barcode to each and every place and building in the emirate to identify the desired location with a single click on any smartphone, navigator or computer”, Lootah said.

Director of the GIS Department Abdul Hakim Malik said the strategic project is aimed to help and support all government organisations, companies, residents and tourists with different nationalities and languages to locate and reach any place in Dubai easily using digital maps.

“This will be achieved by creating a national coordinate grid on a digital map, developing applications and fixing plates that carry location information on all buildings in Dubai. All types of buildings will be covered like government organisations, hospitals, parks, commercial buildings, houses, factories, warehouses etc.”

The map control tab on the site allows the user to choose different views like map view, satellite view, public transport view or live traffic view.

The public transport view shows the route map of metro lines, metro stations, main bus stations etc.

The live traffic view shows roads with heavy traffic in red lines, those with moderate traffic in orange lines and those with normal or less traffic in green colour. “This will help motorists choose route with less traffic to reach their destination faster. The system is minutely accurate compared to other navigation systems to the extent that everyone with a smart device can identify the exact place in metres,” said Malik.

He said users can ‘favourite’ the grid coordinates of their houses or the places they frequent to quickly access them on the maps. “You just have to email the coordinates to your friend to help him find your location by putting that number into our system. Search option is also available for finding out specific places or buildings.”

For example, the Dubai Municipality’s main building in Deira can be located by searching by its name or by its coordinates for the building 40R CN 30002 95324.

The official said his department will soon launch the facility to send the grid coordinates of locations via sms as well.

“Our application will be available in the latest GPS to be launched by Garmin in March 2013 as per an agreement signed today.”

Motorists welcomed the news. “What the municipality has achieved is really great. And if it is coming on a Garmin product, it will be fantastic,” said Rajesh Ravindran, an IT manager in Dubai.

“I hope they will work on the missing links soon and come up with the full-fledged system by when they have promised,” he said after checking out the site.

sajila@khaleejtimes.com