More Metro stations to open on May 15

Three more Metro stations will open on May 15, in addition to the seven that will be operational on April 30, as first reported by Emirates Business earlier this week.

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said that GGICO (near Garhoud Road), World Trade Centre and Al Qouz stations would enter service on the Red Line on May 15, making a total of 20 stations operational.

While work on the remaining eight stations that complete the Red Line will be completed by April 25, they will open a little later, said Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA.

The stations scheduled to open at the end of this month are Emirates, Airport Terminal 1, GGICO, Al Karama, World Trade Centre, Marina and Ibn Battuta.

"Stations have been selected based on the population density of the locality served by each station, so as to provide convenient services to the residents of the neighbourhood; availability of commercial activities in the area served by each station; availability of government activities in the vicinity of each station; station integration with other transport modes; and the projected number of commuters at each station," Al Tayer said.

Since its launch on 09/09/09 till the end of March this year, the Dubai Metro has carried 13.68 million people, averaging 80,000 passengers a day, the RTA reported. With the launch of these 10 new stations, the RTA expects the total ridership of Dubai Metro to hit 35 million people by the end of 2010.

"The huge investments pumped in by the Government of Dubai to uplift the infrastructure of the transportation sector has paid dividends and proved effective," said Al Tayer. "RTA public transport means, including the Metro, buses, water transport and taxis, have carried more than 288.777 million people in 2009."

The RTA has also carried out site surveys for the neighbourhoods of the stations opening shortly and introduced new bus routes to feed the Metro stations. A total of 28 buses are being deployed.

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