The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) signed yesterday at Madinat Jumeira Hotel a Strategic Memorandum of Understanding with eight organizations under which the Public Transport Agency through the its Mobility Management will facilitate the organizations' actions in allocating buses to transport their employees to and from their residences.
For the RTA, the agreement was signed by Essa Abdurrahman Al Dossari CEO of the Public Transport Agency, while it was signed for other parties by Abdullah Bin Khadiya, Director General Cargo Village, Abdul Aziz Al Ali Executive Vice-president for Human Resources Department of the Emirates Airline, Ahmad Al Matrooshi Executive Director Emaar, Dr. Mustafa Al Hashimy Director General of Al Baraha Hospital, Dr Suleiman Al Jassim Director General of Zayed University, Peter Sands Executive Director of Standard Chartered Bank, Detillif Winter Director General of the Bustan Rotana Hotel and Essa Ibrahim Adam, Burjuman Center Chairman of the Board.
Attending the signing from the RTA were Abdul Mohsen Younis Ibrahim, CEO of the Strategy and Corporate Governance Sector, Abdul Aziz Malik CEO of Dubai Taxi Agency, Khalid Mohammed Hashim, Director of Planning and Business Development at the Public Transport Agency, Abdullah Yousef Director of Public Buses, Salim Abdul Rahman Al Saleh Director of Maintenance and Fleet Services, Jawad Sajwani Director of Franchising and Empowerment, Yousef Al Madani Director of Transport Systems, Nasser Bushhab Director of Strategy for Transport at the Strategy and Corporate Governance Sector, Khalaf Abdul Kader Acting Director of Development and Corporate Performance at the Sector and Laila Hareb Acting Director of Marketing and Corporate Communication.
In his speech, Al Dossari said: the Public Transport Agency would work through signing of this agreement with the strategic partners to achieve seven major goals by conducting joint studies and researches to find out the mobility obstacles faced by the public including the employees on a daily basis and work side by side to bring about effective solutions to resolve these obstacles.
Developing of joint mobility management programs between the RTA and all other parties concerned to provide transit means for all personnel of various organizations and encourage them to use the transport modes of alternating the private cars. Working on reducing the number of vehicles with one commuter, which are used by the employees to go work, by encouraging them to share in their vehicles with others on their daily trips to and from their headquarters and increase the number of passengers in each vehicle, through the introduction of Carpooling Concept.
Studying the possibility of providing special buses to transport the employees to and from their headquarters for the great impact it would have on reducing the number of private vehicles on the streets and roads of Dubai and we would consider how to facilitate the registration procedures of the staff buses for our strategic partners within the RTA's system.
Working on organizing the parking lots adjacent to the work sites in an effective manner that goes with the needs of organizations and the traffic congestion around their locations resulting from the movement of vehicles of staff and visitors on a daily basis. Launching joint awareness campaigns for the corporate staffs in order to educate them about the impact of vehicular movement on jams in general and on the environment and society in particular.
And providing jointly studied solutions between the roads RTA and all the strategic partners for the distribution of the number of vehicles at peak times on other times through the application of the Flexible Hours and the Staggered Hours, and other working hours systems, which could always help to reduce the traffic jams in at the rush hours."
For his part, Abdul Mohsen Younis Ibrahim CEO of Strategy and Corporate Governance Sector pointed out in a speech to the Dubai Award for Sustainable Transport (DAST), an initiative launched under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of its Executive Council, and the Mobility Management is one of its three categories that aims to reduce the number of daily trips by private cars, contribute to the increased use of public transport modes that take the largest possible number of passengers and enhance the fulfillment of the special needs people requirements.
Essa Adam Ibrahim, Burjuman Center Chairman of in turn praised translate this agreement as another initiative from the RTA for significance it enjoys that strengthens the ties of joint cooperation and strategic partnership between Burjuman Center and the RTA. It also establishes new links between the participating organizations representing different sectors in Dubai.
Dr Suleiman Al Jassim, Director General of Zayed University said that this MoU that emerges to reflect the inclination of both sides in the exchange of corporate knowledge, experience and expertise and ensure the mutual benefits, contribute to raising the awareness among locals and residents of the UAE on the importance of mobility management and instill the concept of the sustainable transportation through the holding the joint seminars, meetings and workshops to help meet the needs of national development in a way that orchestrates with the strategy of Zayed University to be a beacon of intellectual and cultural awareness.
Dr. Mustafa Al Hashimy, Director General Al Baraha Hospital said that holding after a series of meetings with a number of specialists from the Public Transport Agency attending systematic and solid workshops based on sound foundations, we came to know that this plan will effectively contribute to the mobility of staffs to and from their headquarters smoothly, especially the physicians who are required to show up at any moment, through the use of alternatives to private cars, which will undoubtedly lead to alleviate the traffic congestion.
Therefore, a transit plan had been laid down for Al Baraha Hospital so as to harmonize with the working conditions of the hospital and is compatible with the issues raised according to the field survey on the staff mobility to and from their headquarters, and the problems they face, in addition to making Dubai a better environment to live and free from any pollution caused by large numbers of cars.
It is noteworthy that the Public Transport Agency of the RTA introduced late last year a Mobility Management section related to the Planning and Business Development Department after conducting a number of comprehensive field studies about the mobility of public transport in the Emirate of Dubai conducted by the Department of Planning and Business Development of the Public Transport Agency.
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