Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has constructed 100 air-conditioned smart shelters for public bus riders based the public private partnership (PPP) model.

These shelters span more than 15 districts across Dubai emirate. The RTA had launched the first of these smart shelters back in February this year.

“The initial indicators had shown numerous results including an increase in the number of smart shelters users, compared to the normal air-conditioned bus shelters. The users expressed a great deal of satisfaction in a way that rose from (74 per cent) to (91 per cent) since the inauguration of the project earlier this year thanks to the smart shelters. The number of different transactions done in the smart bus marked (25) thousand transactions up to end of mid-2016,” said Abdullah Yousef Al Ali, CEO of Public Transport Agency, RTA.

 “Constructing 100 air-conditioned smart shelters contributes to one of RTA’s core goals, that is 'People's Happiness' as they encourage the public to use mass transit means in Dubai and they contribute to transforming Dubai to the world’s smartest city. The underlying objective of these smart shelters is to upgrade public transport facilities & services through transforming them into smart elements capable of maximizing the satisfaction & happiness of various community segments, especially public transport riders,” added Al Ali.

 “The smart shelters provide an array of services for public bus riders such as the Free WiFi UAE offered in collaboration with Du, selling & recharging of NOL cards, mobile phone top-ups, payment of government bills, recharging mobile phones, passenger information service, self-service kiosks, interactive media screens, monitors displaying information about RTA services, and the selling of refreshments and snacks,” he concluded.- TradeArabia News Service