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19 March 2024

Finally, ‘Living Maps’ that keep pace with Dubai’s ever-growing roads

Published
By Staff

Ever wondered why your GPS says ‘Not on a digitised road’ when you’re cruising along a fairly smooth road in Dubai? That’s because your GPS is not updated, while Dubai, one of the fastest growing cities in the world, keeps adding new roads, flyovers and highways to the city’s bustling infrastructure almost on a weekly basis.

The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has been working to provide systems that can keep pace with one of the fastest growing cities in the world. And it has come up with a cool solution – Nokia’s living maps, or online mapping solution that gets updated on a regular basis to keep pace with the emirate’s changing landscape.

RTA and Nokia on Monday announced that they had signed an agreement to license Nokia Maps data for the city’s public transport system.

Following this agreement, ‘Nokia Transit’ will be the first smartphone app to provide the city’s residents with full details of all modes of transport including the metro, public buses, marine transport modes and taxis for any given destination. Dubai is the first city in the Mena Region that harnessed this application and introduced it to public transport commuters.

The application also features exact departure and arrival schedules along with details of transfers and guides pedestrians to the nearest stop or station making it simple and easier for residents to travel by public transport.

Abdulla Al Madani, RTA’s CEO, Corporate Technical Support Services Sector, said: “RTA has always been striving to provide its clients with world-class services by harnessing the latest technologies to make their daily public transport trips a safe and smooth experience.”

“Signing an MoU agreement with an internationally renowned company such as Nokia will indisputably constitute an added-value to our work mechanism and make mass transit much more easier for all commuters. We consider this agreement as an initial step for broader horizons of mutual business cooperation on different fronts,” added Al Madani.   

Henri Mattila, Nokia Middle East’s Head of Products, said:  “The Dubai public transport data is invaluable local content which truly enriches our product portfolio and delight people all over the world. We are extremely happy to see ‘HERE’ – Nokia’s cutting-edge mapping platform used by the RTA in a way that provides useful information for residents and visitors in Dubai, reflecting our vision of providing consumers with distinct experiences.”

Nokia’s tie-up with Bing offers location-based services and apps, and these living maps are evolving. “HERE is about more than searching for addresses or getting from A to B. It’s about living, breathing places, full of stories and memories and possibilities,” Nokia says.

Content such as maps, transport and traffic data is pivotal in meeting increasingly demanding consumer expectations and Nokia’s ‘HERE’ platform leads the way with its wealth of world leading, premium location content.

There has already been a steady increase in the usage of Dubai’s public transport modes including the metro, public buses and marine over the last few years reaching around 231 million passengers in 2012, while the taxicabs transited around 167 million passengers in the same year.  
With this pattern of growth expected to continue, the launch of ‘Nokia Transit’ for Dubai is particularly timely. Using exact time schedules, this practical app can plan highly accurate journeys literally from door to door, providing the information and directions needed every step of the way.

Nokia Transit for Dubai is now available from Marketplace for free download on Nokia Lumia 920, 820, 720, 620 and 520 smartphones. Users wanting to calculate routes using public transportation in Dubai can also check Nokia’s web maps.