By Gavin Davids www.arabianbusiness.com
The chairman and executive director of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced on Saturday that Dubai Metro service hours during the holy month of Ramadan would start from 6am and continue till 1am during weekdays, and from 2pm to 1am on Fridays.
Mattar Al Tayer said: “Fixing the Metro service time during the holy month of Ramadan came in response to an opinion poll of the public and metro riders about the operational timing.”
He added: “It also came in response to a comprehensive study of mobility movement in the Emirate during Ramadan and the working hours in the public and private sector organisations. The decision also takes into consideration the movement of people, which soars after Iftar and Taraweeh prayers and continues late into the night.”
Statistics revealed that the number of metro users jumped from 2,373,451 passengers last April to 3,193,087 passengers in May and the number of commuters kept rising to reach 3,262,912 in June.
The first week of July 2010 registered a record number of users with 130,529 commuters using the metro on July 1.
Al Tayer also announced that the RTA had revised the working hours of paid parking zones during the holy month, with the morning session remaining as it is (from 08:00am to 01:00pm), and the evening session starting from 07:00pm till midnight. This, he said, would maintain the same number of hours set for using parking zones in the evening session without any increase.
He added: “Revising the parking timing in the evening session was intended to ease the pressure on parking users in the afternoon up to Iftar time.”
Al Tayer said: “The movement of the public within market and business districts during Ramadan shifts from day time to the period after Iftar.”
He added: “It was inevitable to take a decision that goes in a parallel line with the commercial activity in the Emirate to ensure the availability of parking space for the public during and after Iftar, streamline traffic movements in all areas of the Emirate, minimise the negative use of parking, and ensure the availability of parking space during the business peak hours of Ramadan.”
