7 Days

Dubai, May 28: Motorists are set to be hit in the pocket again following the announcement of two more Salik toll gates for Dubai’s roads. The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) revealed its plans to implement the new tarifs at Maktoum Bridge and Safa Park Bridge at the Second Interchange of Sheikh Zayed Road from September 9.

Currently there are toll gates on Garhoud Bridge and on Sheikh Zayed Road next to Mall of the Emirates. Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA, said the new phase of Salik comes after the initial gates proved a “great success” in reducing traffic levels. “Our studies showed the success of the first phase in reducing traffic at toll areas by 25 per cent, and lowered the duration of the journey on Sheikh Zayed road by 50 per cent,” he said.

Al Tayer said that the new toll gates would help to redistribute traffic and help prevent jams in Deira and on roads in Al Barsha. “In order to avoid the Al Barsha toll gate, motorists were using internal roads, which led to more traffic jams. A new toll gate is being installed on Al Safa Park Bridge in order to overcome this problem,” he said.

However, motorists who spoke to 7DAYS yesterday said they were not happy that driving in the city was set to go up in price again.  “People will be forced to use the new Salik gates as there are no other alternative roads to reach different places in Dubai,” said KC Johny, an Indian  warehouse manager, who lives in Dubai.

Larry McGuinness, a South African expat, said he felt the new tolls were just a clever way of extracting more money from road users.  “I don’t think it will have any affect on traffic. Some roads in Dubai like Al Wasl Road will become even more congested,” he said. But Al Tayer said there were alternative roads for people to use if they wanted to avoid fees, including Emirates Road, Floating Bridge, Al Shindagha Tunnel and Business Bay Crossing.