News Dubai

Salik toll system's aim to reduce traffic 'is right on track'
By Ashfaq Ahmed, Staff Reporter

Dubai: The Salik toll system has helped reduce traffic passing through the toll gates on Garhoud Bridge and Shaikh Zayed Road by 20 per cent and is right on track, said a senior official.

"Salik is part of a series of integrated solutions worked out by the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to tackle traffic congestion," said Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA.

Fines of only registered Salik users to be waived
By Ashfaq Ahmed, Staff Reporter

Dubai: The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) will not waive Salik fines for all, Gulf News has learnt.

The RTA has revised its earlier decision of not issuing penalties to any of the violators of the toll system.

'Refund money we paid for Salik toll' when violators are not fined
By Mariam M. Al Serkal, Staff Reporter

Dubai: Law-abiding residents who conform to the requirement to top up their Salik cards were appalled by the Roads and Transport Authority's waiving of Salik fines for motorists.

It was reported on Saturday that Salik fines for all motorists who are registered with the Dubai's road toll system, have been waived for the period between July 1 and October 31. Motorbike users will not be fined at all until December 31.

Back to school: Focus on road safety
By our staff reporters
1 September 2007

DUBAI & SHARJAH — With schools in the country reopening this week, parents seem to be primarily concerned about road safety for their children. Especially because several accidents involving school children were reported during the previous academic year.

Khalid Yasser Ali, a 10-year-old student of Ibn Khaldoon Private School in Sharjah, died after being crushed by a car in May this year while he was waiting for his father near the school gate.

Firms work extra to meet Salik deadline
VESELA TODOROVA SENIOR REPORTER

Car rental companies will be working over the weekend to make sure their fleets of thousands of vehicles can drive through Dubai’s new toll gates without incurring a fine.

Starting from Sunday, cars driving through the toll gates near Mall of the Emirates and Garhoud Bridge, will have to display a special sticker tag on their windscreen.

Vehicles without the tag will be fined Dh100 and the fine will be doubled every time the offence is repeated.

Taxi firms deny cashing in as Salik gets under way
VESELA TODOROVA SENIOR REPORTER

Taxi firms could collect a windfall from Dubai’s Salik road toll system because of the cap on the daily fees that can be collected.

The charge for passing through one of the toll points at Garhoud Bridge and Intersection Four of Sheikh Zayed Road is Dh4.

The daily cap for any vehicle is Dh24 – the cost of going through the gates six times.

Rental firms to profit from Dubai road toll
by Safura Rahimi on Wednesday, 27 June 2007

Rental car companies will charge customers as much as 25% extra to use the Dubai road toll, leaving them open to accusations of profiteering from the already controversial scheme.

Although Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) yesterday confirmed that road toll charges remain at AED4 for all cars, there has been widespread agreement among rental car companies to charge customers more than 10% extra - AED4.50 per crossing - on top of toll charges.

Car rental firms suffer Salik impact
By Mariam M. Al Serkal, Staff Reporter
23 June 2007

Dubai: Car rental companies will have to bear the cost of the road toll, according to a decision taken by the Dubai Car Rental Group recently.

The group comprises 55 car rental companies representing 85 per cent of the sector in the UAE.

According to a Group member, the companies will be able to monitor the number of times customers had passed the toll gates from the Salik website.

RTA clears the air on Salik penalties
By Joy Sengupta
19 June 2007

DUBAI — In an attempt to clear confusion over Salik, the new toll system in Dubai, Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) yesterday stated that people who pass through Salik gates without credit in their Salik cards will be exempted from penalty if they go in for a recharge within two working days. The toll system will come into effect on July 1.

Officials said the RTA was expecting an annual turnover of Dh600 million through Salik.

Toll system to raise Dh600m
By Alia Al Theeb, Staff Reporter

Dubai: Faced with increasing public criticism, Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) officials yesterday strongly defended the new road toll system 'Salik' and said it would generate annual revenues of Dh600 million.

"The system is not new and implemented in many countries. We didn't invent it," said Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA, during an open discussion with the media at the Authority's headquarters.

A new era in traffic management
By Ashfaq Ahmed, Staff Reporter

Dubai: Dubai will be the first city in the region to introduce a road toll system. Motorists who face the heat of clogged traffic in this fast developing emirate will start paying a road toll to use part of Shaikh Zayed and Shaikh Rashid roads - the city's busiest highways with major commercial development on both sides.

Road toll system 'will clog traffic'
By Bassma Al Jandaly, Staff Reporter

Dubai: The new road toll system will clog traffic rather than ease it, said a top police official.

Brigadier Mohammad Saif Al Zafein, Director, General Department of Traffic, Dubai Police, told Gulf News that the police has nothing to do with the new [Salik] road toll system as they were not consulted at any time.

I can't imagine life without my daughter, says mother
By Bassma Al Jandaly, Staff Reporter

Sharjah: A Filipina schoolgirl was killed when she was run over by a car inside the school parking area on Wednesday, police said.

Police said the car was being driven by a woman who was picking up her kids from the same school.

A Grade two student in Far Eastern Private School in Sharjah, seven-and-half year old Shanilla Anita, succumbed in hospital to severe injuries.