Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is to extend the city’s metro tracks from its current 70 km to 110 km by 2020, then take it further to 200 km by 2025 and finally double up to 421 km by 2030.

RTA Chairman Mattar Al Tayar said the RTA’s strategic plan aimed at increasing the share of public transport trips to 20 per cent over the next five years and 30 per cent by 2030.

Revealing the news at the 61st UITP World Congress and Exhibition, a key public transport event held in Milan, Italy, last month, Al Tayer said the masterplan of the rail network in Dubai envisages leveraging the marine transport services including the extension of the total length of marine lines to 450 km.

Under the plan, the number of buses is also expected to grow to 2,000 over the next five years, carrying around two million riders per day.

The RTA recently unveiled its Route 2020 project to extend the Red Line of the metro by 15 km to reach the site of the World Expo, near Al Maktoum International Airport.

Meanwhile, the RTA said its expenditure on infrastructure projects executed in the last 10 years has topped Dh80 billion ($21.78 billion), with its assets standing at Dh85 billion ($23.14 billion).

Mega projects undertaken by the RTA, since it was established in November 2005, have helped the UAE achieve top international ranking in a road quality survey by World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report for 2013-2014, said Al Tayer.