The Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) announced the disbursement of 4.25 million dirham to owners of 17 houses bordering Al Rashidiya Metro Depot believed to have been affected by the metro operation and maintenance works at the Depot, at a rate of 250 thousand dirham per house.

His Excellency Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA confirmed that last week the RTA had effected the payments to the owners of houses adjacent to the Metro Depot, adding that in the near future the RTA would also construct sound barriers along the affected houses and these barriers would be high enough to ensure the privacy of occupants as well. The RTA also stopped the use of horns in the Depot and asked the company responsible for the metro operation and maintenance to ensure compliance with the decision of banning the use of horns within the Depot, he said. Al Tayer reiterated RTA’s commitment to ensure the comfort and stability of residents of houses nearby the metro Depot and see to it that their life is not impacted by the metro operation & maintenance works.

“The implementation of these measures was in response to a site survey carried out by a work team of the RTA which concluded that some houses were affected by noises resulting from the squeaking & friction of train wheels when negotiating turns during tests carried out Al Rashidiya Metro Depot. Some houses were reported have been impacted by the sound of train horns despite assurances of officials of the operation & maintenance firm of their compliance with the policy of abandoning the use of horns and other alerting devices for more than a year in implementation of RTA’s directives in this regard. The survey also revealed that all houses inspected inside and out sustained several constructional and non-constructional cracks which were attributable to several factors including vibrations resulting from the movement of trains back and forth in the station, particularly the four houses neighbouring to Rashidiya Park. The report also indicated that occupants of the first five houses in the direction of Rashidiya Park suffered from the lack of privacy as their houses were exposed to the metro Depot.

It is worth-mentioning that during the construction of the Dubai Metro project, the RTA set a clearly defined methodology for the engineering standards in use globally as well as locally in the Emirate of Dubai, where it obliged the Consortium undertaking the construction of the metro project to adhere to these standards during the construction phase, including taking into account the globally permitted limits for noises and vibrations generated by the movement of trains. Indicators showed that the amount of noises monitored in Rashidiya Depot in the middle of last January was 69.5dbA; which was less than the permissible rate during the construction period of 70.7dbA conforming to the standards of the Dubai Municipality; which is slightly higher than some global noise standards of approximately 65dbA. The RTA has recently signed a joint agreement with the German GERB International company for assessing and measuring the impact of noise caused by the movement of trains, including the resulting vibrations, along with its impacts on the buildings along the Red Line.