Al Tayer orders establishment of Safety Streamlining & Planning Department within the RTA

Four key tasks:

Planning & Policies

This includes drafting of policies & legislations related to health, safety & environment.

Under these responsibilities comes preparation of plans related to health, safety & environment modelled on the best global practices, developing procedures related to health, safety & environment, and developing safety standards for transport systems.

The list of relevant assignments also includes preparing databases of lessons learnt from accidents, preparing annual reports related to safety, and conducting development researches to improve safety.

Licensing & Streamlining

Here the Dep't is responsible for licensing transport systems and operators in the emirate according to the applicable systems, periodical inspection & audit of all transport systems & operators, judicial enforcement, bringing actions against offenders, and conducing periodical assessment of licenses issued to transport operators.

The Dep't verifies the commitment of transport modes operators with the investigations in minor & serious accidents, and ensures availability of a documented list of external bodies & consultants concerned with safety.

Investigate Accidents

Investigate Accidents and carry out investigations of major accidents as a neutral entity in coordination with the external bodies.

In this regard it receives accident reports & submits them to the Board of the RTA, identifies the underlying causes of key accidents, identifies improvement potentials, publishes periodical reports to enhance safety standards to curb future accidents, and reviews & analyzes data of previous accidents based on key databases.

Audit and Enforcement

It covers provision of information related to health, safety and environment for auditors, preparation of health, safety and environment audit programs, and preparation of training courses for health, safety and environment personnel at the Agency levels.

It also covers building & updating databases of health, safety and environment, carrying out surprise / planned field visits to construction sites & projects, lending necessary support to enable RTA obtain international accreditation and awards, and preparing /upgrading health, safety and environment related risk models.

Amair Saleem

The Decision provided for employment of Amair Saleem as Director of Safety & Streamlining & Planning Dep't. Mr. Saleem is a holder of a Masters Degree in Air Transport Engineering from Cranfield University in the United Kingdom.

He is also a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and Fellow of the Safety and Reliability Society.

He has over 20 years of international experience gained from working in the UK, The Netherlands, Austria, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He worked as the Consultant's Safety Manger for several major Rail and Transport Operators, including Kowloon-Canton Rail Corporation, Hong Kong; Singapore Land Transport Authority and the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation. His former employers include Bovis Lend Lease, Parsons Brinckerhoff, British Aerospace and the European Space Agency.

The RTA has recently established two Departments for Quality, Health, Safety, & Environment at Traffic & Roads Agency and Rail Agency, over and above Quality, Health, Safety, & Environment Offices in other RTA Agencies.

This is viewed as part of RTA efforts to enhance safety procedures in all RTA projects and transport systems undertaken by the RTA by means of applying specialized work manuals in this regard in accordance with a clear technical methodology.