350 air-con shelters now up and running

More than 350 of Dubai’s air conditioned bus shelters are now fully operational the company behind the initiative, Right Angle Media, said on Wednesday.

The project, launched in December 2006 as part of a plan to encourage greater use of public transport during the hot summer months, is also “on track” according to RTA schedules, said the company, with 640 shelter sites currently in progress and the number of operational sites growing daily.

Last month LG Electronics, the company responsible for installing the air conditioning units, confirmed that the scheme had been delayed due to power connections.

Some shelters were boarded over and turned into advertising hoardings while they waited for power connections to the grid.

“The process is taking longer than we anticipated,” Raman Multani, CEO of Right Angle Media, the firm behind the project told Arabian Business in an interview last month.

“Unlike traditional [forms of] advertising which is drawn from street lighting, power for [these stations] has to be drawn from sub power stations. First you have to do a survey based on the location of the station, then find out which is the nearest sub-station and how much power can be drawn,” said Multani.

In addition to advertising space, the shelters will include snack and soft drink vendor machines, ATM’s and recycling facilities.

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