Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority, RTA has told the World Road Congress that Dubai raised $46 billion after it invested more than $27 billion in its roads and transport over 12 years.
He told delegates that Dubai’s investment in new roads and mass transit systems, such as the Dubai Metro, between 2006-2018 has realised numerous economic benefits in the city such as saving time and reducing fuel costs.
“The improved mass transit systems of Dubai contributed to increasing the share of public transport in the total mobility journeys from 6% in 2006 to 17.5% in 2018,” he said. “Moreover, the improved road projects together with the awareness programmes in place, contributed to reducing road accident fatalities from 21.9 cases per 100 thousand of the population in 2006 to 2.4 cases per 100 thousand of the population in 2018, thus dipping by as much as 89%.”
Official news agency WAM reported that, Al Tayer pointed to nine success factors of infrastructure projects management: effective management, comprehensive strategies, proper administrative model and resilient organisational chart, quick decision-making, sufficient funding, governance and control, risks and challenges management, implementation of plans and future fore-sighting, and applying hi-tech in projects.
“However, investments should not be restricted to infrastructure, and should rather extend to include continuously empowering Emirati human resources. The success of projects is primarily based on the leader, clear vision, direct impact, and close field follow-up,” he concluded.
