ABU DHABI 8 October 2019: The Dubai Government’s investments in roads and transport infrastructure has realised economic benefits – both in saved time and fuel wastes – to the order of Dh169 billion during a 12-year period.
In a key note session at the World Road Congress in Abu Dhabi, Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), revealed that investments of Dubai Government in roads and transport infrastructure, estimated at Dh100 billion, had generated economic benefits totaling Dh169 billion between 2006 and 2018.
“The improved mass transit systems of Dubai contributed to increasing the share of public transport in the total mobility journeys from six percent in 2006 to 17.5 percent in 2018. Moreover, the improved road projects together with the awareness programmes in place, contributed to reducing road accident fatalities from 21.9 cases per 100 thousand of the population in 2006 to 2.4 cases per 100 thousand of the population in 2018, thus dipping by as much as 89 percent,” he explained.
Al Tayer referred to nine success factors of infrastructure projects management: effective management, comprehensive strategies, proper administrative model and resilient organisational chart, quick decision-making, sufficient funding, governance and control, risks and challenges management, implementation of plans and future fore-sighting, and applying hi-tech in projects.
He concluded by stressing the importance of investing in infrastructure. “However,” Al Tayer noted, “investments should not be restricted to infrastructure, and should rather extend to include continuously empowering Emirati human resources. The success of projects is primarily based on the leader, clear vision, direct impact, and close field follow-up.”