RTA's Customers Council, Community Development Authority discuss mass transit services in Dubai with Mamzar residents

Discussions to this effect took place at a gathering of RTA's Customer Council at Mamzar recently hosted by the Community Development Authority and attended by Ahmed Hasan Mahboob, Deputy Head of RTA's Customer Council and Director of Customers Service in addition to Muhannad Saeed, Director of Community Programs; Mani Al-Kindi, Community Councils Officials at the Community Development Authority. Also in attendance were Baha Al-Qudra, Director of Marine Transport at Public Transport Agency; Mohammed Yousef, Director of Operations at Dubai Taxi Corporation; Hamed Al Faheem, Director of Roads Planning and Design at Traffic and Roads Agency; Ali Al Marzouqi, Manager of Inter-city Bus Section at Public Transport Agency and Eisa Al-Hashimi, Manager of Public Transport Development Network Section at Public Transport Agency in addition to a horde of Mamzar residents.

Mahboob conveyed the greetings of HE Mattar Al Tayer, RTA Chairman of the Board and Executive Director, to the attendants comprising residents of Mamzar and officials of the Community Development Authority. "The RTA's top management assigns high priority to the provision of public services to all community segments, and is always keen on adopting the best practices to take its service offering to a higher level that goes beyond customers expectations through effective communication and reaching out to customers at their own domiciles," he continued.

Mahboob heeded to a number of proposals, ideas and observations as regards the performance and infrastructure of public transport. "The RTA, with all affiliated agencies and sectors, always attaches utmost attention to proposals, ideas and observations made by the public, and applies the feasible ones. It also honors initiators of the best suggestions & constructive ideas and maintains effective communication with them," he added.

The Deputy Head of RTA Customer Council cum Director of Customer Service, said, "The RTA always strives to make public transport the best mobility choice in the Emirate of Dubai. It also makes strenuous efforts to diffuse the culture of using public transport modes among residents of the Emirate through providing advanced and sophisticated transit means such as the Dubai Metro, public buses, and marine transit modes in addition to a solid infrastructure to support them. Additionally, it runs a diverse cast of services and strategic initiatives such Nol cards, tolling system (Salik), Journey Planner (Wojhati) and e-services among other programs which play a key role in integrating the systems."

He urged the audience to take advantage of the galaxy of e-services offered by the RTA to the public including citizens & residents. "These services entail plentiful benefits and advantages as they are speedy & transparent besides being readily accessible from home or office via computers or smart-phones. Thus they save users' time & travel cost and relieve them from the hassles of finding a parking space, to name a few," he further added.

The meeting included a number of presentations made by directors and managers from various RTA agencies & sectors addressing the Dubai Metro, public buses, Nol Cards, and e-services as well as the channels of delivering such services to the public.

Mahboob concluded the gathering by extending thanks and appreciation to the Community Development Authority for its cooperation with RTA Customers Council to organize this gathering with the residents of Mamzar to cater to their needs and heed to their comments, suggestions and ideas. At the same time, he lauded the great efforts made by the Community Development Authority to upgrade the social profile of residents of the Emirate of Dubai in terms of vital services provided in this score.

For his part, Ahmed Al Muhairi, Director of Programs and Social Services Sector at the Community Services Development, said "The Community Services Development is keen on stepping up communication and cooperation with all strategic partners to provide quality services to citizens and residents of the emirate, addressing their requirements and achieving the best rates of community welfare. The Authority seeks to harness all resources and expertise to support partners to enhance communal activities at all levels. Our cooperation with our brothers in the RTA bears great reference to this drive," he concluded.

It is worth mentioning that the RTA has granted a number of Nol Silver cards to attendees from Mamzar along with other guests in a gesture of goodwill offering them the opportunity to savour the mobility experience via mass transit modes in order to perceive their advantages & benefits in a realistic manner. This step would also encourage and make residents accustomed to using mass transit modes on daily basis, and also enable them to make observations, ideas & proposals to be communicated to the RTA, which will play a key role in making further improvements of the quality of service offering to customers.