RTA delegation tours several countries to evaluate companies taking part in a tender to supply 1616 buses

These visits included six factories based in five countries (Spain, Britain, Italy, Korea and China) with which the RTA is engaged for the first time.

Essa Abdul Rahman Al Dossari, CEO of RTA Public Transport Agency, said that the tour enabled the team to review the potentials and manufacturing capabilities of these companies as well as inspecting the quality of their brands.

The delegation set off its tour from Hispano Factory in Zaragoza city in Spain, followed by a visit to D L Factory in Scotland, and Right Bus Factory at Belfast in Britain.

Then the delegation headed to Pride Minardini Factory at Paolini, Italy and from there to Hyundai Factory, South Korea and concluded the tour by a visit to Yang Man Factory at Jinhui, China.

In addition to Al Dossari, RTA delegation comprised Abdullah Yousuf Al Ali-Director of Public Bus Dep't, Salem Abdul Rahman Al Saleh - Director of Maintenance & Services Dep't, and Masoud Al Awadi - Specialized Contracts Expert.

"The supply of 1616 buses ranks among the biggest bus supply contracts across the world, as there is no city in the world which has ever made such a huge bus order in one lot. 12 international companies are taking part in this tender and the last day for submission of technical & financial offers by bidding companies has been set as 18 May 2008. The evaluation team is expected to identify the winning companies within a month of offers submission.

"The Contract of supplying new buses includes three types of buses; standard, articulated and double-decker buses. These buses are manufactured at the highest safety & security standards, and latest technologies, such as audio announcing of the next bus stop. They are also fitted with a statistical system to compute commuters, a bus positioning system linked to RTA Control Center, and internal & external display screens. Following this deal, RTA bus fleet will soar up to 2500 buses by 2009; providing public transport service covering 95% of the emirate of Dubai. It will also enable operation of feeder bus service for Dubai Metro, which will further increase the share of trips made by public transport modes.

"Public Transport Agency is always keen to upgrade the level of services rendered to the public through deploying state-of-the-art buses featured by high security & luxury standards. Provision of these buses is part of Bus Master Plan developed by the Agency last year, following extensive studies aiming to integrate this sector with the public transport network, spanning other transit modes such as metro, marine transport and taxis" said Al Dossari in a concluding remark.