NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL

Storms batter UAE and more on way

DUBAI - MARCH 26: The UAE was battered by thunderstorms and winds of up to 100 kph last night and forecasters predicted five more days of turbulent weather.

People were warned to stay out of wadis and to be careful in the mountains because of the risk of flash floods, while ships were told to exercise caution in rough seas.

Clive Stevens, the duty forecaster at the Dubai Meteorological Office, said the situation at the airport was “extremely dangerous” last night, with crosswinds of more than 75 kph, making it difficult for air-traffic controllers to guide planes in.

“The problem is that the wind is changing direction all the time, which makes it hard for air traffic control to select which runway to use,” he said.

“We are trying to advise them as best we can what we think the wind direction is going to be.”

Instruments that monitor wind speed at the top of some of Dubai’s skyscrapers were registering gusts of 100 kph. There were reports of hail in parts of Dubai.

“The readings are actually off the scale,” Mr Stevens said.

“People in the northern areas are reporting very heavy hail, it’s smashing down. The storm has hit right along the west seaboard and moved inland, certainly as far as Al Ain, and it’s also hitting the east coast as well.”

The wind, rain and hail first started to hit the northern emirates of Ras al Khaimah, Umm al Qaiwain, Ajman and Sharjah in the late afternoon, before moving down the coast in the evening. By last night, strong winds had hit the capital, causing hazardous driving conditions.

 On Road 28 in Al Bateen, a fallen tree, toppled by the winds, blocked one carriageway, leading to traffic backups.

Visibility at Abu Dhabi International Airport was down to about 50 metres as a sandstorm took hold and flights were diverted to Al Ain and Muscat airports for about 30 minutes.

The storms are likely to last for at least the next five days, Mr Stevens said. “Until Sunday we are going to be reporting rain and thunderstorms every day. It will mostly be cloudy but there will be sunny breaks as well – it is going to be what we call ‘extremely unsettled’.”

Wardi Al Yafei from the Abu Dhabi Met Office said: “The thunderstorms will be mainly concentrated over the north-east but the strong winds here have greatly reduced visibility so we’ve issued a severe weather warning.

The city’s traffic police increased patrols around busy highways and areas where there are diversions and detours in place, said Col Hamad al Shamsi, the head of the police traffic and patrols unit.

 
Dubai seeks to boost bus use

DUBAI - MARCH 26: A massive marketing campaign was launched yesterday with the aim of getting 120 million passengers using Dubai’s bus service by next year.

The new Bus Master Plan is the latest element of the Roads and Transport Authority’s mission to get people out of their cars and onto public transport to cut traffic congestion. At the core of the plan is an advertising campaign using newspapers, magazines and radio to encourage people to travel by bus. The campaign will be carried out in Arabic, English and other languages frequently used by UAE residents.

The RTA said its bus network carried more than 94m passengers in more than two million trips across the city last year, so the new target represents an increase in bus travel of about 20 per cent.

The authority announced in January that it would increase its bus fleet to 2,000 from 600 by the time the Metro’s Red Line opened in September. It also said it would increase the number of bus stops to 1,500 from 500 by 2010.

“Public buses are anticipated to serve more than 120m passengers by 2010,” said Mohammed al Hashimi, director of the planning and business development department at the RTA’s Public Transport Agency.

The plan will play an important part in the RTA’s goal of increasing public transport use more than four fold over the next 11 years. The RTA hopes that by 2020, 30 per cent of Dubai’s population will regularly use mass transit, compared with the current seven per cent.

Despite the RTA’s efforts, many residents said they had have never used a bus and had no intention of using the service. Those who do use the bus said the service needed some improvement but also said it saved them money.

“There are a lot more buses on the roads but they seem as if they are on the same route. Now there is a frequency of an hour to reach some places in Deira,” said Vasantha Rajan, from India.

She takes the bus every morning, boarding in Hor Al Anz and travelling to Satwa for work. “I leave in the morning at around nine to reach Satwa by 10am but never reach before 11am. Even if I get an earlier bus, it still takes me two hours to reach where I want to go. If I miss the hourly bus, I have to wait an extra 45 minutes for the next bus. But it does save me money.”

Ben McCauly, a Briton who lives in Dubai Marina, said he had used the bus only once, during Ramadan. “There were no taxis available one evening and I saw the bus coming. I knew this one went to Media City so I asked the driver how much it was and I was surprised it was so cheap,” said Mr McCauley. The trip cost him Dh2.

“It was a really nice friendly experience and was a bit of novelty not only for me but I think for the others on the bus too,” he added. “I can’t see myself using the bus to go very far but once the Metro is up and running, I will use it if the service is quick.”

Sandra Mahon, an events manager also from the UK, said she had never used a bus.

“I need a car and use that for everything.” she said. “Anyway, I don’t even know where the bus goes from or where it goes to.”

Peyman Younes Parham, director of the RTA’s marketing and corporate communication department, stressed the importance of the new campaign.

“Public buses play a crucial role in mass transit,” he said. “A single bus will spare the use of almost 40 light vehicles, let alone the superb features provided to passengers such as added comfort, fun, and the smooth flow of service.”

Mr Parham also pointed out the buses are equipped for people with special needs.

He also said waiting for a bus would be less gruelling, particularly during the summer months. “To make bus transit more comfortable, the public transport agency started construction of air-conditioned bus shelters for waiting passengers, the first of their type across the world.”

Hundreds of these shelters have already being built, with bus route maps and flashing lights to indicate there are waiting passengers.

Man killed, two hurt in motorway collision

AL AIN - MARCH 26: A Bangladeshi man in his 30s was killed and two other men were injured when two cars collided on the Al Ain-to-Bukariya Highway yesterday, Al Ain Police said.

One of the injured, a Bangladeshi man in his 40s, was taken to Al Ain Hospital. An emergency room nurse there said he had severe head injuries but was expected to survive.

The driver of the other car, a 70-year-old Emirati man, was taken to Tawam Hospital, but his injuries were not serious and police said he would be released the same day.

Police said the badly injured man had been trapped in the damaged vehicle and had to be cut out of it by rescue personnel.

Way clear for higher fees as schools pass inspectors’ test

DUBAI - MARCH 26: Eighty-five per cent of schools which took part in the first round of new government inspections were deemed acceptable or good, it was revealed yesterday.

Roughly a third of Dubai’s 220 state and private schools have undergone the inspections, which were launched last year. Of 69 schools, just six were deemed unsatisfactory, while four were given outstanding marks.

Last week, the authority announced that tuition increases for the next academic year would be pegged to their performance as measured by the inspections. However, it was also decided that all but failing schools would be allowed to raise fees by higher margins than in the past.

Outstanding schools are allowed to raise their fees by 15 per cent next year, good schools by 12 per cent, acceptable schools by nine per cent and unsatisfactory schools by seven per cent. For the past two years, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) has allowed Dubai schools to increase tuition fees by eight per cent per year, or 16 per cent over two years.

The KHDA, the government agency that oversees Dubai schools, released the findings from its first round of school inspections yesterday.

Inspectors looked at seven key areas, among them the quality of teaching and learning, the curriculum, leadership and management capacity. Parents were also surveyed as part of the process.

The authority will release a full report in May when inspections of another 120 Dubai schools are complete.

It will include a comparative study of how state and private schools have scored.

Results for 31 Indian, Pakistani and Iranian schools are also to be released in the next academic year after the inspections are complete.

Schools have until April 2 to inform parents about the findings; on that date a summary of each individual school’s performance will be posted on the KHDA’s website next week.

Dr Abdualla al Karam, the chairman and director general of the KHDA, said chronically underperforming schools would be phased out over time, while inspection standards would become more stringent next year.

He said: “What we would like to see is a shift from being poor to good, but rest assured that if you stay where you are, and you continue to do exactly what you have been doing this year, you will be one level below.”

Dr al Karam said that unsatisfactory schools were being allowed to increase fees to improve the quality of the education they offered.

“You need to give them that,” he said, adding that fee increases may not be approved every year, particularly if standards did not improve.

But even with a seven per cent increase in tuition fees, some educators believe schools will struggle to improve quality.

Nusky Jamal, the headmaster of the Central School Dubai, said a seven to 12 per cent fee increase might not be significant for those that charge nominal fees. “If the fees are high, a 10 per cent increase is all right for them. But if fees work out much lower per annum it is not,” he said.

“We are struggling to keep up with inflation. To maintain better quality we need to increase fees further.”