Amira Agarib and Joy Sengupta www.khaleejtimes.com
DUBAI – A team of 660 personnel has been put together to take charge of security when the Dubai Metro starts rolling from September 9, a senior police officer told Khaleej Times on Tuesday.
Called Transport Security, their numbers will reach 800 by year-end, said Abdulla Al Ghaisi, Director of the General Department of Emergency and the Transport Security force at the Dubai Police.
The police have installed 3,000 surveillance cameras at the stations and elsewhere on the Red Line, the officer said.
A Memorandum of Understanding in this regard was signed by the police and the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in April this year.
The force will be a part of the General Department of Emergency at the Dubai Police.All the recruits have been given proper accommodation, Al Ghaisi said.
At major stations such as BurJuman and City Centre, there will be four police points.The security at other stations will be adequate, he said. “All these recruits have been given special training for this purpose,” Al Ghaisi said.
The underground stations will have tighter security and sniffer dogs will be frequently employed. In addition, special forms will be made available at all the stations for commuters to report loss of belongings. Transport security men will take care of the matter, he said.
Earlier, Ramadan Abdullah Mohammed, Director of Rail Operations at the Authority, said that the RTA was in the process of coming up with legislations for Metro users.
There will be a code of conduct. Fines and penalties will be introduced for damage to property or doing anything that might endanger others, the official said. There will be atleast 10 cameras on each train for complete monitoring.
Earlier, Amair Saleem, Director of Safety and Planning department at the Corporate and Governance of the RTA, had told Khaleej Times that the RTA was also planning fines and penalties against the Metro operations in case of non performance.
