NEWS FROM THE UAE
Source : The National
Salam Street tunnel opens in Abu Dhabi
Workmen put the finishing touches to the first part of the Salam Street tunnel, which will open to traffic tomorrow, six months ahead of schedule.(The National)
ABU DHABI - FEB 18: While the first Salam Street tunnel is scheduled to open tomorrow, residents are already dreading the planned closing of another major junction as part of the massive construction project to ease traffic congestion.
The municipality said the tunnel near Khalifa Park would almost double the traffic capacity of an 850-metre stretch of Salam Street. The tunnel was completed six months early, said Abdullah al Shamsi, the director of infrastructure.
“This is the first entrance from the east side to Abu Dhabi,” he said. “The previous road could carry 2,500 cars per hour. Now, it will reach 4,500 cars per hour.”
The tunnel, which is surrounded by a tile mural depicting red sand dunes and blue sky, could eventually accommodate 6,000 cars per hour in each direction.
“It will help a lot to relieve the pressure of traffic congestion,” Mr al Shamsi said. “The teams worked day and night to expedite the construction process.”
However, on the same day as the tunnel opens, the junction at Al Falah and Salam streets will be partially closed.
Drivers will not be able to reach the Tourist Club Area or Abu Dhabi Mall from Al Falah Street, and traffic moving towards the Corniche on Salam Street will not be able to turn left onto Al Falah.
Later this month, the junction will be closed completely. A spokesperson for the municipality said the move was necessary to continue construction on the project’s main tunnel, which will stretch more than 3km from the Sea Palace to the port area.
Commuters who have navigated heavy traffic and blocked roads since the Salam Street project began two years ago welcome the news of the tunnel’s opening.
“Salam Street traffic is causing too many problems. Going there is a total waste of time,” said Sunny John, 40, a taxi driver from India.
Drivers were unhappy, however, to hear about the closure of the Salam and Al Falah streets junction.
“I was there just now,” said Saeed al Rumaithy, 33, an Emirati employed by the Government. “It’s nerve-wracking and very tiring.
“Once you go there you know that you’re probably stuck in the traffic for the rest of the day. It ruins your whole day. I never make any appointments the day I’m going to that area because I know very well that I’ll never get back on time.”
Natalie Cloete, 30, a housewife from South Africa, said she stopped going to the Abu Dhabi Mall because the traffic has become so bad.
Some drivers were more optimistic.
“I only recently got my driving licence, so I haven’t driven in the country yet, but I know from my husband what it’s like to drive near that intersection,” said Sheeba Michael, 30, a housewife from India.
“Hopefully, by the time I start driving they’ll be finished with the construction works there.”
Fatima Zalt, 24, a housewife from Syria, said she looked forward to the day the road would be free of red and white barriers and industrial trucks.
“Right now it is causing too much trouble, but I think the project they’re working on will solve many problems,” she said.
The three-year, Dh5 billion (US$1.4bn) Salam Street project is expected to double the number of cars able to enter the city each hour. When completed, the renovated thoroughfare will include several tunnels and allow drivers to travel from the Sheikh Zayed Bridge to the port area without facing a stoplight.
It is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Train takes the strain as city staff spend day without cars
DUBAI - FEB 18: More than 1,500 Dubai Municipality staff left their cars at home yesterday to mark Car Free Day, an initiative to cut down on pollution and promote public transport.
Hussain Nasser Lootah, the municipality’s director general, led by example by using the new Metro network. He boarded the VIP-class carriage in Al Rashidiya station and went just four stops to Union station, which is just a few minutes walk from his office.
He encouraged staff to use public transport yesterday by reimbursing their tickets.
“We hope the green initiative, launched by the municipality to motivate and educate employees to use sustainable transport to preserve the environment, will be emulated by other government departments in Dubai,” said Mr Lootah.
The municipality, which was the first government body to endorse Car Free Day, closed its car park yesterday, giving employees no choice but to use public transport. The only staff exempted were field employees who needed their cars for work.
The civic body is currently compiling a report on Car Free Day, which will detail the reduction in carbon dioxide as a result of the hundreds of cars taken off Dubai’s roads’ for one day.
Car Free Day started in the US during the 1970 oil crisis and now 1,500 cities in 40 countries cut the number of cars on its roads once a year.
‘We do not compromise on education’
DUBAI - FEB 18: As Ashok Kumar, the chief executive of the Indian High School, walked into his school’s well-stocked library, a big, brightly painted room filled with English and Hindi books and more than a dozen computers, he beamed with pride.
“Even the best schools charging Dh40,000 or Dh50,000 will not have such facilities,” he said.
“Each classroom has a smartboard,” he added. “What school will have that?”
The Indian High School is among those that Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority classifies as good.
By Mr Kumar’s account, the school, a not-for-profit institution that opened its doors in 1961, offers a higher quality education than for-profit schools while charging lower fees: tuition starts at Dh3,500 (US$950) annually for KG1 and goes up to Dh5,500 for Grade 12.
“Charging low fees does not stop us from offering state-of-the-art education,” Mr Kumar says. “Since it is not for profit and we have a model where people give time to the students, everything we do in the school is for the students. That’s why we’re able to keep low fees. We do not compromise on education.”
Inside the sprawling collection of buildings that make up the school – on a big grassy plot in Oud Metha – there is a certain feeling of community. Unlike many other Indian schools in its price range, the Indian High School is meticulously maintained: the grounds of the campus are kept clean, science labs are spacious and modern, and the school even boasts its own radio station.
“It’s a good education. It’s not just a low bracket,” Mr Kumar said, adding that even parents who can afford more expensive schools enrol their children.
Mr Kumar said Dubai needed more schools like his that operate on a not-for-profit basis.
“It’s a simple rule,” he said. “If I were for-profit, I would be charging more. But in the same fee bracket, nobody has such facilities. We have better facilities than the people on a higher bracket.”
“It’s not-for-profit, anything which we make is ploughed back in the system,” Mr Kumar said. “We have a lot of honorary advisers and workers on the board who don’t charge. So if I hired a consultant on safety they would charge me a bomb, but I have an honorary consultant who does it for free, so we save on that.”
But the waiting list for the Indian High School is 4,000 strong and students are selected by lottery. Most parents who want to send their children to the school are not able to obtain a place even though the school has close to 10,000 on its rolls between the two campuses.
“The facilities offered by the school are high, especially since the fees are pretty low,” said Steve Thomas, a 16-year-old student who has been at the Indian High School since kindergarten.
“We had board exams in another school last year,” he said.
“The facilities here are much better. If you compare the ACs and stuff they are much better.
“In the lower grades they have projector screens and laptops are provided to each in the classrooms ... The classrooms are also much bigger and better
Jailed photographer loses camera, too
ABU DHABI - FEB 18: An amateur photographer who was jailed and fined for taking prohibited pictures from the Khalifa Bridge despite there being no warning signs said he has been told his Dh14,500 (US$4,000) camera will not be returned.
MA, a Pakistani living in Sharjah, came to Abu Dhabi last year to capture images of the capital, which he was hoping to submit for the photography competition Abu Dhabi Through Your Eyes.
On October 25, he was driving over the newly opened Khalifa Bridge when he stopped to take a picture of the sunset with his Canon 5D Mark II and a 24-100mm lens.
He said he was stopped by a man in an unmarked car who claimed to be an Army officer. The man asked to see the camera and the pictures, MA said, then wanted to confiscate the camera and take MA to the police.
Instead, the police were called and MA was arrested and imprisoned for two days after pictures of “prohibited areas” were found on his camera.
The area where MA was taking pictures, the Mina Zayed, houses warships and defence installments. MA told police and the court he did not know he was taking pictures of a sensitive area, as there were no signs prohibiting photography.
On Monday, he was fined Dh1,000 by the Federal Supreme Court, which tries state security cases. The verdict did not include his camera being confiscated.
“I went to the Public Prosecution and State Security and I got my passport back, finally, but they told me I would not get the camera back,” MA said. “I asked where the camera was and they said the camera was confiscated.”
When MA went to the court to inquire if this was a part of his sentence, he was told to come back in two weeks to get a copy of the verdict.
“I told them to format the [memory] card or even just take it, but give me back the camera and they said no. They said the judgment was to take the camera.”
The Public Prosecution could not be reached for comment yesterday.
MA said the lesson he learned was more than just not pulling over at the side of the highway to take pictures.
“The Abu Dhabi Brand [organisers of the competition] need to be more clear about where photographers can and cannot take pictures. Sky is not the limit.”
Robber stabs currency exchange employee
SHARJAH - FEB 18: A currency exchange worker who was stabbed three times during a foiled knifepoint robbery said yesterday that he felt lucky to be alive.
Abdul Mohammed, 45, was attacked on Monday night as he left the Federal Exchange in Rolla carrying Dh300,000 (US$81,740) in various currencies.
Police are hunting for his assailant, who fled empty-handed after hearing the siren of an approaching police car.
Speaking from his hospital bed yesterday, the father-of-three from India said: “I feel relieved that I have survived the robbery and managed to safeguard my money.”
A doctor at Kuwait Hospital, where he was being treated, said his condition was improving, and that he should be allowed to go home today.
Police yesterday urged people to be careful after leaving banks or currency exchanges with large amounts of money. “All we can tell the public is to be vigilant, especially if they notice some one following them,” a spokesperson for Sharjah Police said.