Survey on Dubai Rail Project nears completion

"The Household survey is relatively more important since the rail project's preliminary model will be based on it to quite an extent. The survey covers some of the most important factors, which can have an affect on the rail project model," Mr Mehairi said while commenting on the importance of the survey.

Other surveys seek feedback from different quarters of society in Dubai. They obtain perspectives from tourists, taxi drivers, bus commuters and others on the mass transportation project.

The number of respondents from each of these categories ranges from 100 to anything around 250, whereas the household survey will cover 500 families each in three different categories, Mr Mehairi noted.

Explaining the survey's categorisation of households, Dr Zein El Wafaai, Demographic Expert at the centre, said: "The three levels or categories of families were decided on the ownership of cars, in terms of high, medium and low levels and aims to gather, analyse and feed the acquired data in order to develop a model for the project."

He added that the model would lead to the actual beginning of the much-awaited Dubai rail project.

According to Dr El Wafaai, the household survey will help understand transportation related needs, problems and availability of choices of residents. It will also shed light on population distribution and densities around the emirate. "It is through the results of this survey that the rail project will be designed underground, maybe even under the creek waters at some places, while it will be at ground level or elevated at other places," he said.

Replying to a question on the scale of the survey, Dr El Wafaai noted that factors, such as the categorisation of households, makes the survey more effective even at the given scale. "Also, the comprehensive survey conducted earlier in Dubai has provided considerable relevant data on households," he added.

Dr El Wafaai disagreed that the period of one month given for the survey was too little as compared to the task and pointed out that the number and quality of personnel working on the survey make a major difference.

"There are some 20 researchers and five supervisors on the field, and all of them are qualified and trained professionals. Some of them are bilingual in Arabic and English, while others speak several Asian languages," Dr El Wafaai said.

Giving details of the current status of the survey, Dr El Wafaai said that over 80 per cent of the work is complete and data reviewing followed by data feeding has also begun for the preparation of the model.