RTA of Dubai published recently the official statement according to which the much-discussed and long-awaited Dubai Metro Blue Line will be operational on September 9, 2029. Its importance lies in the fact that this year marked the 20 years since Dubai Metro was first introduced to the city as a transport system.
The 30-kilometers Blue Line will be dry with fourteen stations where five will be sub-terrain and nine sub-terrain giving a much-needed connectivity to the populous area of Dubai. It will link directly with the Red Line at the Centrepoint Station and the Green Line at the Al Khor Station for the ease of transfer between main routes. Some of the primary zones it targets are the Dubai creek, festival city, Mirdif city, international city, silicon oasis, as well as academic city.
The RTA has signed contracts for the project with AED 20.5 billion to a Turkish consortium of MAPA and Limak firms, and China’s construction firm CRRC. It has to be noted, however, that AEC was initially planned to be AED 18 billion, which also points to the scale of the project.
Effective operation, the Blue Line shall accommodate up to 46, 000 passengers per hour both ways, with projected daily passenger traffic ranging to 200,000 in 2030 and rising to 320,000 in 2040. It is also expected to cut traffic congestion in the corridors it accesses by twenty percent.
Among the project’s important features, the crossing over the Dubai Creek with the first one that uses a 1,300 meters long bridge to be a part of the Dubai Metro. Further, the line will have a connection with Dubai International Airport, and the travelling time will be 10-25 minutes.
It is also the first transport project in Dubai that has incorporated the provisions of platinum status green building standards of green building standards. And by the year 2040, the areas that are targeted by the line will have one million people, and property’s within half a kilometer of the line is expected to raise by 25%.
