Parts of Naif, Al Ittihad Roads to be extended

Parts of Naif Road and Al Ittihad Road will be extended by one kilometre each within the first six months this year.

This was announced by Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), at the launch of Phase II of the bus and taxi dedicated lanes scheme.

He added that the launch of Phase II of the Scheme comes in response to the huge success seen by the initial phase.

Al Tayer said RTA had surveyed a number of roads prior to the implementation of Phase II of the bus and taxi dedicated lanes scheme that included a host of parameters, namely the traffic congestion, engineering capabilities of adding bus lanes, entry and exit points, parking spaces and their influence on activities in the area, bus routes and the analysis of feasibility study of public bus lanes together with their impact on traffic safety.

He said the study concluded that Naif Road in a sector extending one km from Al Musalla Road to Al Khaleej Road, and Al Ittihad Road in a sector of one km in the direction from Sharjah to Dubai starting from the entrance of Dubai and extends through Al Nahda intersection would be included in Phase II.

Al Tayer said Phase II would contribute to increasing the number of bus commuters in the two areas. There are nine public bus routes passing through Naif Road with a total of 36 buses in operation during peak hours. Running through Al Ittihad Road are seven public transport bus routes with a total number of 22 buses in operation during peak hours.

Surveys and studies conducted by the RTA covering more than 1,000 users and drivers of public buses and taxis showed that 77 per cent of them responded that they wished to have the project expanded to include other streets in Dubai. While 75 per cent of  respondents confirmed that the scheme would help shorten the journey time and 86 per cent of bus drivers expressed their satisfaction  with the scheme stressing that it would help slash the journey time and boost public transport rider-ship.

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