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Dubai’s rail project to ‘add a Blue Line’

DUBAI — After the completion of the Red and Green Lines of the Dubai Light Rail Project (LRT), works on which are expected to start soon, Dubai Municipality will proceed with a Blue Line, Nasser Ahmed Saeed, Director of Roads Department and General Co-ordinator of the LRT said recently.

Nasser revealed the civic body's plan during a presentation he made on the Dubai Metro Project at the recently concluded international conference, MetroRail 2005, in London.

“The Blue Line is designed to perform two functions. On the one hand, it will be a link between the current Dubai International Airport and the proposed Jebel Ali Airport, while on the other, it will be a service for the areas located between the terminals. That’s why we are studying the feasibility of a three-track line, with one of the tracks directly linking the two airports.” Nasser said.

He also said the civic body will complete by end of this year a mass transport-oriented master plan for Dubai.

“We will be drawing up a master plan oriented towards needs of mass transit. The plan will be ready by the end of 2005,” Saeed was quoted as saying by the Paris-based Rail and Public Transport magazine.

In another important announcement at the conference, Qassim Sultan, Director-General of Dubai Municipality, and Chairman of the Dubai LRT Committee, revealed that Dubai will develop a mass transit policy once the prestigious metro project is implemented. He said that this policy would involve new regulations controlling the use of personal vehicles. The Dubai Metro’s first phase is expected to be over by May 2009.

“With the introduction of Dubai Metro, the market share of public transport including buses and LRT, is projected to rise from the current five per cent to 17 per cent by 2020. The new policies and regulations will take this further to 26 per cent at the target year,” he said.

He pointed out that this modal shift will de-congest the roads, decrease traffic hold-ups and increase road safety.

"Besides, the metro will also improve air quality and the total health care costs attributed to air pollution will decrease approximately by one million dirhams annually," he said.

Talking on the economic viability of the project, he said the project will shift the activity centres away from the current Central Business Districts and develop the area surrounding the metro stations and along the metro corridor. Besides, the improved transit availability will increase the investment and real-estate value of the existing and new developments, he said.