Two new Salik gates in Dubai – at the Business Bay Crossing on Al Khail Road and at Al Safa South on Sheikh Zayed Road – will be activated on Sunday, taking the number of tolls in the emirate to 10.
Announced by the Roads and Transport Authority in January, the gates will collect the standard Dh4 every time a vehicle crosses them and will aim to reduce traffic congestion by 12 to 15 per cent in the Business Bay area and by 15 per cent in Al Safa area.
In January, Salik Company – the operator of the toll gates – explained that the locations were chosen following traffic studies to reduce congestion.
“The addition of new toll gates in two increasingly busy locations marks the latest milestone in the growth plan that we set out at the time of Salik’s initial public offering," Ibrahim Al Haddad, chief executive of Salik, said at the time. Mattar Al Tayer, director general of the RTA, added that Dubai's road toll strategy was key to its efforts to reduce traffic.
Al Safa South gate will be linked to the older Safa North gate an, like the Mamzar gates, will only charge a single payment from those crossing both gates within an hour.
In an earlier interview, Mr Al Haddad said it was the first time that Salik gates would be solar-powered, supporting the authority's "sustainable growth agenda" and "commitment to green energy".
He also said that plans were under way to power all Salik gates by solar energy over the next few years.
The Salik chief executive said the toll gates had "contributed to reducing the total travel time across the emirate by approximately 6 million hours annually and increased the number of public transport users by about 9 million passengers annually”.
During its IPO announcement in 2022, Salik had hinted at plans to introduce “dynamic pricing”, which varies depending on the time of the day. “The Roads and Transport Authority could implement dynamic pricing through optimising the toll rates depending on the time of the day, for example, by charging a higher toll fee for specific lanes or during peak hours," the IPO announcement read.
It said that the system would be based on similar models used in other cities, such as Dallas and Stockholm.
In a series of social media posts, Salik said the new gates will improve accessibility to areas such as Jumeirah, Downtown Dubai, Dubai Water Canal and Al Safa, among others.
Why Dubai introduced toll gates?
The Salik system was introduced in 2007 to ease traffic congestion, raise state revenue and encourage residents to use public transport. The first two gates came up in Gharoud and Barsha, with Safa and Maktoum bridge gates added a year later. In 2013, three gates were introduced at Airport tunnel, and two at Mamzar – south and north. In 2018, the Jebel Ali gate was introduced.
Motorists are charged Dh4 to pass through each gate, with the amount deducted automatically from tags fixed to vehicle windscreens. The tags can be purchased online or at service stations, and topped up online or through recharge cards.
The toll gates:
- Al Barsha
- Al Garhoud
- Al Maktoum
- Al Mamzar South
- Al Mamzar North
- Al Safa
- Al Safa (South)
- Airport Tunnel
- Jebel Ali
- Business Bay
Penalties
Every vehicle must have a Salik tag, with new vehicle owners given a 10-day grace period to install and activate one.
Passing through Salik gates without a tag will incur a fine of Dh100 for the first offence, Dh200 for the second offence and Dh400 every time after that.
There’s currently no daily cap on Salik, with every gate charging a fee of Dh4 every single time a vehicle passes through.
Maktoum bridge closure
Al Maktoum bridge in Dubai, where one of the 10 Salik gates is positioned, will remain closed for long durations until January 16, 2025, the RTA previously announced. It will be closed between 11pm and 5am on Monday to Saturday and all day on Sunday during this period. First opened in 1963, it connects travel between Bur Dubai and Deira.
The bridge's toll gate does not charge motorists on Sundays and is free to travel through from 10pm to 6am daily. During the partial closure for the next two months, the RTA has urged drivers to take alternative routes.
If going from Deira to Bur Dubai:
- Al Shindagha Tunnel through Baniyas Road and Al Khaleej Street
- Infinity Bridge through Baniyas Road, Al Khaleej Street and Corniche Street
- Business Bay Crossing Bridge through Baniyas Road, Sheikh Rashid Road and Rebat Street
- Al Garhoud Bridge through Baniyas Road and Sheikh Rashid Road
If travelling from Bur Dubai to Deira:
- Al Garhoud Bridge through Oud Metha Road and Sheikh Rashid Road
- Infinity Bridge or Al Shindagha Tunnel through Tariq Bin Ziyad Road, Khalid Bin Al Waleed Road and Al Khaleej Street
- Business Bay Crossing Bridge through Oud Metha Road and Al Khail Road Dubai
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EA Sports FC 24
SPECS
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Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
FFP EXPLAINED
What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.
What the rules dictate?
The second phase of its implementation limits losses to €30 million (Dh136m) over three seasons. Extra expenditure is permitted for investment in sustainable areas (youth academies, stadium development, etc). Money provided by owners is not viewed as income. Revenue from “related parties” to those owners is assessed by Uefa's “financial control body” to be sure it is a fair value, or in line with market prices.
What are the penalties?
There are a number of punishments, including fines, a loss of prize money or having to reduce squad size for European competition – as happened to PSG in 2014. There is even the threat of a competition ban, which could in theory lead to PSG’s suspension from the Uefa Champions League.
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Company%20profile
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Who has lived at The Bishops Avenue?
- George Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, sugar magnate William Park Lyle and actress Dame Gracie Fields were residents in the 1930s when the street was only known as ‘Millionaires’ Row’.
- Then came the international super rich, including the last king of Greece, Constantine II, the Sultan of Brunei and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal who was at one point ranked the third richest person in the world.
- Turkish tycoon Halis Torprak sold his mansion for £50m in 2008 after spending just two days there. The House of Saud sold 10 properties on the road in 2013 for almost £80m.
- Other residents have included Iraqi businessman Nemir Kirdar, singer Ariana Grande, holiday camp impresario Sir Billy Butlin, businessman Asil Nadir, Paul McCartney’s former wife Heather Mills.
Hunting park to luxury living
- Land was originally the Bishop of London's hunting park, hence the name
- The road was laid out in the mid 19th Century, meandering through woodland and farmland
- Its earliest houses at the turn of the 20th Century were substantial detached properties with extensive grounds
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
Titanium Escrow profile
Started: December 2016
Founder: Ibrahim Kamalmaz
Based: UAE
Sector: Finance / legal
Size: 3 employees, pre-revenue
Stage: Early stage
Investors: Founder's friends and Family
More coverage from the Future Forum
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Women & Power: A Manifesto
Mary Beard
Profile Books and London Review of Books
ARGYLLE
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Boulder shooting victims
• Denny Strong, 20
• Neven Stanisic, 23
• Rikki Olds, 25
• Tralona Bartkowiak, 49
• Suzanne Fountain, 59
• Teri Leiker, 51
• Eric Talley, 51
• Kevin Mahoney, 61
• Lynn Murray, 62
• Jody Waters, 65
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Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Day 1 results:
Open Men (bonus points in brackets)
New Zealand 125 (1) beat UAE 111 (3)
India 111 (4) beat Singapore 75 (0)
South Africa 66 (2) beat Sri Lanka 57 (2)
Australia 126 (4) beat Malaysia -16 (0)
Open Women
New Zealand 64 (2) beat South Africa 57 (2)
England 69 (3) beat UAE 63 (1)
Australia 124 (4) beat UAE 23 (0)
New Zealand 74 (2) beat England 55 (2)
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
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Bookshops: A Reader's History by Jorge Carrión (translated from the Spanish by Peter Bush),
Biblioasis
Iftar programme at the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding
Established in 1998, the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding was created with a vision to teach residents about the traditions and customs of the UAE. Its motto is ‘open doors, open minds’. All year-round, visitors can sign up for a traditional Emirati breakfast, lunch or dinner meal, as well as a range of walking tours, including ones to sites such as the Jumeirah Mosque or Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood.
Every year during Ramadan, an iftar programme is rolled out. This allows guests to break their fast with the centre’s presenters, visit a nearby mosque and observe their guides while they pray. These events last for about two hours and are open to the public, or can be booked for a private event.
Until the end of Ramadan, the iftar events take place from 7pm until 9pm, from Saturday to Thursday. Advanced booking is required.
For more details, email openminds@cultures.ae or visit www.cultures.ae
