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Special needs people to be exempted from parking fee

The RTA's initiative complies with Article No. (25) of the federal law No. 29 on the rights of people with special needs that has been adopted by the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, which stipulates the need to provide facilities for the disabled on roads and public vehicles, ground transportation and marine.

Announcing the initiative yesterday, Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the Roads and Transport Authority and Mariam Mohammad Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of Social Affairs, said that the law stipulates all the necessary technical specifications available on road and public vehicles, marine and in-land transportation.

Other senior officials from the RTA were also present at the meeting.

"In the Dubai Metro project, this is among the big projects implemented by RTA as they have taken into consideration the requirements of people with special needs while designing train carriages, and crossings between the stations and the roads on all the stations on the red and green lines," he added.

Among other facilities, a number of car parks have been allocated at various locations for the challenged people.

Signals sensitive to sound and touch, special texture material for footpaths and special bus stops will also be added for these people, said a senior RTA official.

Pedestrian crossings have been fitted with electrical elevators to facilitate easy and safe crossing.

A number of projects will be executed now for pedestrians in 45 locations amounting to Dh70 million including 17 pedestrian bridges equipped with electrical elevators, and seven crossings with signals and four upper crossings with flat humps.

The RTA has signed an agreement to purchase 80 Hi Tech Citaro Buses with modern grandeur. These include 49 big buses, 18 standard buses and 13 small buses all characterised by low level bus floors which will be in level with side walks along the waiting areas of the buses to facilitate the boarding and alighting of people with wheelchairs.

The entrances to buses and its cabins will be spacious enough to accommodate wheelchairs, prams and luggage.

The Dubai Taxi Department currently runs two vehicles for people with special needs round-the-clock.

This will be soon increased to five modern vehicles equipped with special lever or crane to carry wheelchairs, artificial respirators equipments, led by trained drivers.

"The standard specifications are already in place, we are now activating the new features," said Engineer Maitha Bin Adai, CEO of Traffic and Roads Agency.

She said that as per the plans to overhaul the licensing and registration system, special specifications will also be kept for the handicapped.

The RTA has conducted field surveys amongst governmental bodies, commercial services, recreational and pedestrian facilities and mass and marine transport. Mariam Al Roumi, Minister of Social Affairs said that the ministry will integrate people with special needs in public schools.

The ministry's centres on rehabilitation, training and care will cater for very special cases to rehabilitate the disabled children at an early age, as well as train their families to provide them with guidance on how to deal with disability and reduce its negative impacts on the child's psychology, thus facilitating the process of full integration both in school and in society," she explained.

• UAE