Dubai to splash $14.3bn on transport network
Dubai will spend about 52.5 billion dirhams ($14.3 billion) over the next five years building roads, bridges and a metro network as the emirate's population growth surges, a transport executive said on Monday.
Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has already committed to projects worth 26 billion dirhams in the Gulf's tourism and trade hub, which is seeking to achieve economic growth of 11% per year to 2015.
"We are to spend 10.5 billion dirhams a year for the coming five years," RTA Chairman Mattar Al-Tayer told reporters, without being more specific.
Al-Tayer said last June the authority planned to invest at least 75 billion dirhams over the next five years on transport infrastructure to help meet demand as Dubai's population is expected to double to more than 2 million by 2015.
Among the RTA's plans are a urban rail system including at least a four lines, the first two of which will cover 76 kilometres and carry about 200 million passengers per year.
The RTA would fund the projects from Dubai's government and its own operations and had no plans to borrow, Al-Tayer said.
"We are not going to borrow any money, we have enough money," he said.
One way the RTA would earn money for its infrastructure projects is by selling branding rights to local and global firms for 23 of its metro stations and two of the lines, Al-Tayer said, declining to say how much it hoped to raise from the sale.
Companies could secure branding rights for 10 years, he said.
"This is a chance for us to make money and [is a model] used in Europe and the United States," he said, adding the authority would also generate funds from advertising and rentals of commercial and retail space.
The RTA is also selling branding rights for metro stations across the city, its chief of strategy and corporate governance Abdulmohsin Ibrahim told reporters.
Emaar Properties, the largest Arab developer by market value, paid 100 million dirhams to build the station at its $20 billion Burj Dubai development, which includes the world's tallest tower, Ibrahim said.
Dubai, home to islands in the shape of palm trees and a ski slope in the desert, wants to almost triple its gross domestic product (GDP) to $108 billion by 2015, its ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, also vice president and prime minister of the UAE, said last year.
In order to cope with traffic congestion, Dubai has built a floating bridge over the Dubai creek, the city's main waterway, and is building new bridges, roads and introducing a water transport system.
The RTA also introduced a toll system on Dubai's main Sheikh Zayed highway in 2007 and has expanded the number of parking spaces for which it takes payment across the emirate.
France's Alstom and Italy's Ansaldo were among groups bidding for a 2 billion dirham design and build contract for Dubai's tram system, Middle East Economic Digest (Meed) reported in December.
British support services firm Serco Group won a contract to operate and maintain the first two lines earlier this month. (Reuters)
Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has already committed to projects worth 26 billion dirhams in the Gulf's tourism and trade hub, which is seeking to achieve economic growth of 11% per year to 2015.
"We are to spend 10.5 billion dirhams a year for the coming five years," RTA Chairman Mattar Al-Tayer told reporters, without being more specific.
Al-Tayer said last June the authority planned to invest at least 75 billion dirhams over the next five years on transport infrastructure to help meet demand as Dubai's population is expected to double to more than 2 million by 2015.
Among the RTA's plans are a urban rail system including at least a four lines, the first two of which will cover 76 kilometres and carry about 200 million passengers per year.
The RTA would fund the projects from Dubai's government and its own operations and had no plans to borrow, Al-Tayer said.
"We are not going to borrow any money, we have enough money," he said.
One way the RTA would earn money for its infrastructure projects is by selling branding rights to local and global firms for 23 of its metro stations and two of the lines, Al-Tayer said, declining to say how much it hoped to raise from the sale.
Companies could secure branding rights for 10 years, he said.
"This is a chance for us to make money and [is a model] used in Europe and the United States," he said, adding the authority would also generate funds from advertising and rentals of commercial and retail space.
The RTA is also selling branding rights for metro stations across the city, its chief of strategy and corporate governance Abdulmohsin Ibrahim told reporters.
Emaar Properties, the largest Arab developer by market value, paid 100 million dirhams to build the station at its $20 billion Burj Dubai development, which includes the world's tallest tower, Ibrahim said.
Dubai, home to islands in the shape of palm trees and a ski slope in the desert, wants to almost triple its gross domestic product (GDP) to $108 billion by 2015, its ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, also vice president and prime minister of the UAE, said last year.
In order to cope with traffic congestion, Dubai has built a floating bridge over the Dubai creek, the city's main waterway, and is building new bridges, roads and introducing a water transport system.
The RTA also introduced a toll system on Dubai's main Sheikh Zayed highway in 2007 and has expanded the number of parking spaces for which it takes payment across the emirate.
France's Alstom and Italy's Ansaldo were among groups bidding for a 2 billion dirham design and build contract for Dubai's tram system, Middle East Economic Digest (Meed) reported in December.
British support services firm Serco Group won a contract to operate and maintain the first two lines earlier this month. (Reuters)
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