Dubai-bound motorists stuck at National Paints bottleneck

Motorists from Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain and Fujiarah who use the Emirates Road to reach Dubai are experiencing heavy traffic once again during peak hours.

Several drivers complain of slogging it out for hours near the National Paint area. This is due to a number of new temporary diversions and lane closures for expansion and repair of existing roads and bridges in the area.

“If you reach National Paints before 6.25am you may be lucky to avoid the pile-up. However, just minutes later than that and you end up reaching office late. After 6.30 traffic builds ups at the interchanges,” Sabu, an Indian, who commutes daily from Al Dhaid in Sharjah to a petrol station in Al Qusais in Dubai.

It may be recalled that a few years ago, there were motorists who left their homes very early in the morning and slept at their workplaces before their duty hours in order to avoid traffic at the National Paints roundabout.

“On Fridays and Saturdays, if I leave home in Daid at 6.20am, I reach my worksite in Al Qusais by 7am. But on weekdays it is just impossible to reach in 20 minutes, so I leave home at 5.50am and reach work at 6.35am. The main congestion is at the intersections connecting Emirates Road and Sharjah; as well as near Sonapur where construction work is in progress,” Sabu added.

“The exit from Emirates Road to Business Bay via Mohsina is also congested during weekdays,” he said.

Yet another motorist, Kabir, said, “It takes between one-and-a-half hours to two-hours for me to reach my office in Al Qouz from my apartment in Ajman. A few months ago I would reach within one hour.

But now with a lot of new detours and diversions at the National Paint and various exit routes to the industrial areas, Mawella and bypass roads, the traffic congestion is unbearable.”

Kabir asks, “I understand the construction will improve traffic, but when. How long will it take?”

In addition to the National Paints construction work, a few lanes on Emirates Road are closed for road expansion projects in Ajman. This is adding to the pileup during rush hours on week days.

“Many of the tenants in my building have returned to Dubai or Sharjah because the rents have come down,” observed Mohammed Sulaiman, another regular commuter from Ajman to Dubai.

The third phase of road expansion project, scheduled to last until next year, involves, widening of existing roads and bridges at the most congested intersection on Emirates Road, with links to the Bypass Road. Two additional lanes are being added to the existing bridge on either way. A new bridge is also being built apart from a new drainage network to check rain waters.

It may be recalled that during heavy rains the National Paints and surrounding areas are flooded adding to traffic woes.

Now with the schools re-opening, morning hours have become unbearably miserable, says another regular motorist.

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