Dubai Appoints Consultant For Expo 2020 Transport Requirements

Dubai has appointed an international consultant to look into the transport requirements that the emirate will face while hosting Expo 2020, a senior official has said.

Speaking at the Government Summit in Dubai, Mattar Al Tayer, the chairman of Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) confirmed the appointment, but did not reveal further details.

“Preparations for the six-month long event have started,” he said.

Dubai is expected to attract 25 million visitors during the Expo, and along with their transport requirements, the city also has to ensure convenient facilities for the residents, he said.

The authority will beef up its fleet of taxis and buses to boost public transport.

“We are also planning to have one unified control centre in Dubai to monitor the various operation rooms across the city and manage the entire transportation system,” Al Tayer said.

Dubai has also appointed an international consultant to look after crowd management during the Expo, he added.

However, although the city is gearing up for the mega event, structures are already in place, Al Tayer said.

“The reason that Dubai won the Expo 2020 bid is because we already have good infrastructure in place. The city has spent Dhs7 billion on infrastructure since 2005,” he said.

“The Dubai Metro project has done extremely well and it carries 50,000 passengers per day. The number of travellers using public transport has, on a whole, risen from six per cent in 2005 to 12 per cent in 2003.

“Our plan is to increase that number to 20 per cent by 2020,” he added.