Dubai signed a contract on Tuesday to build an Elon Musk-led high-speed underground road system, as part of the emirate’s efforts to cut congestion.
Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said the first phase of the Dubai Loop – developed by the entrepreneur’s tunnelling firm, The Boring Company – would cost Dh565 million ($153.8 million) and connect DIFC with Dubai Mall as an alternative transit network built beneath the city's roads.
The network will feature 19 stations across 22.2km, which will require the construction of tunnels measuring 3.6 metres in diameter. The first phase of the project is expected to take one year to complete. The final project is expected to be completed in phases across three years at a total cost of Dh2 billion ($545 million).
The deal was signed a year after it was first revealed by Mr Musk and as the city contends with a population boom and heavy traffic.
“Dubai is embracing innovation and harnessing advanced technology to ease traffic flow and advance environmental goals amid a sustained population boom,” said Mattar Al Tayer, director general of the RTA and chairman of the board of executive directors, who was speaking to The National's Editor-in-Chief Mina Al-Oraibi during a session at the World Governments Summit.
The project is expected to serve 13,000 passengers a day. “It will be mainly in the Dubai Mall, DIFC and Business Bay areas,” he said.
Hamad Al Shehhi, director of the roads department at the RTA, told The National that the Dubai Loop was a transformative project. “It is a unique project. It is a sustainable transportation system," he said.
The project is to begin immediately, with a tunnel to link Dubai Mall to DIFC, he added. “It reduces the trip time from 20 minutes to three minutes.”
He said the first phase of the project would "operate 100 cars with the potential to have driverless cars in the future".
