Investment in public transport is likely to hit $80 billion over the next decade says Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA).
In an interview with Gulf News, Mattar Al Tayer, chairman and executive director of the RTA said: “Given the rate at which the public transport system is being developed across the Middle East countries, the investment in the system won’t be less than $80billion in the next 10 years.”
The RTA announced on Saturday that the city’s Metro Green Line would not be opened until the fourth quarter of this year, but Al Tayer said that the UAE’s $40 billion federal rail network will be ready this June. The extension of the rail network will take the total length of track from 75km to 250km.
“We created a master plan for public transport six years ago and the development of Dubai Metro, bus network, tram and other projects are part of this plan. We are revising the master plan to fit it to the changing scenarios and in the future will add more metro lines and tram networks to the existing ones, creating a network of around 250 kilometres,” said Al Tayer.
The keynote speaker of the four-day event, Dr Kishore Mahbubani, said that public transport investment will accelerate the growth of the emerging economies and drive China and India beyond the US, currently the world’s biggest market.
“Public transport will drive the economies forward, it is going to be the engine of growth and hence the preferred choice of the emerging economies. The world cannot afford to depend on private vehicles alone for various reasons, one of which is obviously the global warming,” said Dr Mahbubani.