Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, Roads and Transport Authority (RTA): Interview

Interview: Mattar Al Tayer

How has the public-private partnership (PPP) law encouraged private sector participation in transport infrastructure development?

MATTAR AL TAYER: The PPP law – the regulations, policies and directives emanating from it – has provided a stable legal and institutional framework to complement Dubai’s attractive investment framework. Along with implementing legislative and governance changes, the RTA has come on in leaps and bounds in building its internal capacity and raising awareness among its agencies and sectors to execute and monitor PPP projects. Additionally, it has carefully addressed risk allocation to manage fiscal consequences of PPPs in order to create a private-investment-friendly climate and build trust. In line with government direction to diversify its revenue and enhance private sector participation in its core business area, the RTA developed Strategic Plan 2016-2020, which is designed to streamline and clarify PPP programmes and projects to boost private investment, especially in the infrastructure and transport sectors.

How is Dubai working to meet the recently announced green mobility target that aims to make 10% of all new cars either hybrid or electric by 2020?

AL TAYER: The RTA has been working on the green mobility initiative since 2008, when it launched a pilot phase of hybrid taxis. Results have shown that hybrid taxis reduce carbon emissions by 33% when compared to conventional vehicles. Because of these results, we rolled out a plan in 2016 to convert 50% of Dubai taxicabs to hybrid vehicles by 2021; as of 2017 there are 760 hybrid taxis. Additionally, in 2017 we signed an agreement with Tesla to have 200 electric vehicles (EVs) in the Dubai Taxi fleet by 2019; the first 50 of these EVs have already been deployed in 2017, another 75 will follow in 2018 and the remaining 75 in 2019. In terms of public bus services in Dubai, we have added low-carbon emission vehicles to our ensemble, and completed a pilot project to test an electric public bus in 2015, which was the first of its kind in the region. In 2017 we completed a test for compressed-natural-gas-powered public buses.

In terms of the green mobility infrastructure, we have established a guideline of requirements for EVs. In addition, we have contributed to developing the Dubai Smart Autonomous Mobility Strategy 2030, which set the target of 25% of total journeys in our city being driverless by 2030. Moreover, the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy has recently announced five incentives for using EVs: provision of free parking, similar to those for disabled parking; exemption from RTA fees when registering or renewing; exemption from the Salik (toll) tag fee; a unique sticker to distinguish from non-EVs; and free electric vehicle charging.

What progress has been made with respect to the Dubai Smart Autonomous Mobility Strategy?

AL TAYER: The introduction of a new technology like self-driving transport to our society will face many obstacles. Some of these can be labelled as global challenges and others as Dubai-specific. We are currently working on many tracks in parallel to achieve the overall Dubai Strategy 2030. Some examples of these tracks include, but are not limited to, connectivity frameworks, testing procedures and legislative structures. We have already signed memoranda of understanding and partnerships with multiple international firms and research universities, including Daimler, Next Future Transportation, Hyperloop and Tesla.

Overall, our 2030 mobility strategy aims to achieve both tangible and intangible benefits. Based on our own international research, and applying it to our local environment, we foresee that the following can be achieved in Dubai: environmental improvements, with approximately 12% reduction in our carbon footprint; approximately 44% decrease in the cost of mobility; a reduction of 50% in parking requirements; and at least a 12% reduction in the number of road accidents.