Dubai Roads and Transport Authority reveals Dh1.6bn digital plan

More than 80 projects comprise the RTA's Digital Strategy 2023-2030

Dubai's RTA manages much of the emirate's transport including metro, taxis and abras. AFP

Dubai transport authorities say Dh1.6 billion will be spent on their Digital Strategy 2023-2030.

The emirate's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said 82 projects and initiatives are involved.

“RTA is progressing steadily in employing modern and advanced technologies,” said director general Mattar Al Tayer.

According to the RTA, goals of the digital strategy include “enabling 100 per cent fintech-driven mobility, increasing digital service adoption to 95 per cent, digitising the skill set of RTA’s employees to as much as 100 per cent, and developing 50 artificial intelligence use cases.”

Mr Al Tayer said the plan was to provide “diverse service options for residents, thereby positioning it (Dubai) as the best city for living, working, and visiting.”

The digital strategy will be carried out in four phases over seven years.

The Preparatory Phase encompasses seven projects, estimated at Dh466 million. The First Phase involves 62 projects valued at Dh829 million, the Second Phase includes 10 projects valued at Dh249 million, and the Third Phase involves 3 projects with a budget of Dh100 million.

No specific information was given about the projects included in each phase.

The RTA will measure progress and effectiveness using several trackers.

These are the adoption rate of digital services and transactions index, smart services happiness index, compliance with the general framework for the governance of technical systems index, data products index, cloud computing readiness index, asset connectivity with the Internet of Things index, data maturity index, and the digital services provision index.

It was recently announced that the RTA would be adding another metro line to its network.

The Dh18 billion ($4.9 billion) 30km project, which will include 14 more stations, is expected to open in 2029.

Stations will be built in Mirdif, Al Warqa, International City 1 and 2, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Academic City, Ras Al Khor Industrial Area, Dubai Creek Harbour and Dubai Festival City.

The route is expected to serve 200,000 passengers a day by 2030, increasing to 320,000 a decade later.