Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has revealed plans to build 12 marine transport stations at the Business Bay Canal and the Dubai Water Canal thus increasing the total number of marine transport stations to 18.

The marine transport sector is an integral part of the mass transit network in the emirate with an estimated ridership of 13 million riders per annum.

“Five of these stations are being built at the Dubai Water Canal project; which is currently under way, and the remaining seven stations will be built at the Business Bay Canal by 2018,” said Mattar Al Tayer, RTA’s director general and executive directors board chairman.

Meanwhile, the RTA has given the go-ahead for the construction of 10 pedestrian bridges in 2016 and 2017 in a number of vital locations in the emirate. This will bring the total number of pedestrian bridges in Dubai to as much as 120 bridges by 2017.

The new bridges will be constructed in a number of vital locations based on the findings of traffic studies. Two bridges will be constructed on Baniyas Road; one each on Khaled bin Al Waleed Road nearby Al Rifaa-Al Saadiyat Road, Al Tawar Centre, Al Ittihad Road near Dnata, Arabian Ranches Road (Road 323), Al Mankhool Road, Latifa bint Hamdan Road nearby Al Khail Mall Road, near Bal Rimaitha Club, and a bridge on the Dubai–Al Ain Road nearby Skycourts Buildings.

In addition, the RTA is currently constructing seven pedestrian bridges: two at Baghdad Road, and one bridge at each of: Al Maktoum Road, Al Mina Road, Amman Road, Baniyas Road, and Al Rasheed Road. Work is more than 30 per cent complete on these bridges, and the project is expected to be completed during the first quarter of next year.

Al Tayer says over the past two years, the RTA has constructed 22 footbridges in a number of vital locations.