Dubai’s spending on transport infrastructure led to massive savings of more than $71bn, a major project management forum heard.
Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), revealed that the cumulative savings of the substantial government investments of the Dubai Government in developing the infrastructure of roads and transport networks amounted to AED262bn ($71.3bn) from 2006 to 2023.
These savings are primarily from reduced time and fuel wasted due to traffic congestion, against AED140bn ($38.1bn) allocated by the government for the development of roads and transport systems during that period.
Dubai transport investments
RTA’s reported revenues amounted to AED8.9bn ($2.4bn) in 2022.
In a keynote speech titled “Leading Mega Projects and Strategic Transformations” to the Dubai International Project Management Forum (DIPMF), Al Tayer noted that such investments contributed to a significant increase in the use of public and shared transport means with the number of riders soaring from 95m in 2006 to nearly half a billion in 2022.
This surge boosted the share of trips made by public transport from 6 per cent to 21.6 per cent in the same period.
It also contributed to a dramatic 90 per cent reduction in road accident fatalities from 21.9 per 100,000 population in 2006 to just 1.9 in 2022.
Al Tayer said: “The RTA has seen remarkable successes in accomplishing mega projects on time. Notable among these are the Red and Green lines of the Dubai Metro, the Dubai Tram, Route 2020 of the Dubai Metro, and the Dubai Water Canal.
“Investment in infrastructure is a significant driver of the economic growth of every city worldwide.
“For instance, the Benefit-Cost Ratio in some of our road projects is anticipated to reach AED8.8 by 2030.
“The economic return for every dirham invested is expected to reach AED8.8.
Similarly, the Metro, having achieved a break-even point between benefits and costs in 2016, is projected to yield a return of AED4.3 for every dirham spent by 2030”.
The RTA’s projects and programmes resulted in a substantial reduction in carbon emissions during the period from 2014 to 2023, leading to savings nearing AED500m ($136.1m)
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