Joy Sengupta www.khaleejtimes.com
DUBAI — All 29 stations along Dubai Metro’s 52.9km Red Line will be complete and ready, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has said sticking to its earlier statement.
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The RTA statement follows news reports which said it was unlikely that all the stations would be ready on time.
One report had claimed that less than a third of the 29 stations will be operational from September 9.
While only nine stations will start in September, the remaining stations will be made operational in October and November, the report said.
When contacted on Monday, RTA said that they did not have a fresh statement to make and that all the stations will be complete and ready, a statement which the Authority had made earlier.
During the launch of the unified fare collection system in June, Mattar Al Tayer, the Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the Authority had said that they were trying their best to open all the 29 stations on 09.09.09. The top official had said that a final station will be made in August.
Al Tayer had, however, confirmed that the Metro will be up and running from September 9. Prior to this statement, the RTA had stated that though all the stations would be ready for use from September 9, some of them might not be made operational if the area does not have any developments.
Al Tayer had said that since the operations of the stations involved a cost, it was not feasible to operate a station which does not have any developments as no one would be using them.  Twenty four of the 29 stations are elevated; four will be underground and one on ground level. The Metro will run along Shaikh Zayed Road, from Jebel Ali through Burjuman in Bur Dubai, under the Dubai Creek to Union Square in Deira, and onto Dubai International Airport and beyond.Â
