Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority has unveiled congestion-cutting plans for a 1.6km six-lane tunnel in Diera.
Al Khaleej Street Tunnel will serve 12,000 vehicles an hour and is a key part of a multi-billion dirham drive to boost traffic flow and ensure the emirate's roads can meet the demands of a growing population.
The RTA on Sunday announced a contract had been awarded for the construction of the transport link, which will stretch from the end of the ramp of Infinity Bridge in Deira to the junction of Al Khaleej and Cairo streets.
The RTA did not confirm when the tunnel is expected to open.
It is the latest addition to the Dh5.3 billion ($1.44 billion) Al Shindagha Corridor Improvement Project, which encompasses a 13km area encompassing Sheikh Rashid Road, Al Mina Street, Al Khaleej Street and Cairo Street.
It will include the upgrade of 15 intersections and aims to benefit about one million people living in Dubai Islands, Dubai Waterfront, Dubai Maritime City and Mina Rashid.
The RTA said the scheme is projected to slash travel times from 104 minutes to 16 minutes by 2030.
“Al Khaleej Street Project, which is part of Phase 4 [of the Al Shindagha project], covers the construction of a tunnel extending 1,650 metres and encompassing three lanes in each direction," said Mattar Al Tayer, director general of the RTA.
"It provides a free traffic flow from the Infinity Bridge towards Deira and back.
"The scope includes transforming the crossing of the Cairo and Al Wuheida streets from a roundabout to a signalised intersection, besides improving Cairo Street and connecting the ramp of the bridge from Dubai Islands to the new tunnel on Al Khaleej Street northward.
"This phase will serve the residents of Abu Hail, Al Wuheida and Al Mamzar along with development projects like Dubai Islands, Dubai Waterfront, Waterfront Market and Hamriya Port."
In March 2023, the RTA awarded the first contract under Phase 4 of Al Shindagha master plan.
The Dh800 million project extends 4.8km along Sheikh Rashid Road, from the intersection with Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Street to the Falcon Interchange on Al Mina Road.
It involves the construction of three bridges spanning 3.1km in total, capable of accommodating 19,400 vehicles per hour across all lanes.
Improvements already completed under the major infrastructure project include the opening of an intersection of Sheikh Rashid Road and Oud Metha Road, and the launch of five bridges leading to Dubai Islands, which together can serve more than 20,000 vehicles an hour.
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
- Seek cool environments: Use air conditioning, fans, or visit community spaces with climate control.
- Limit outdoor activities: Avoid strenuous activity during peak heat. If outside, seek shade and wear a wide-brimmed hat.
- Dress appropriately: Wear lightweight, loose and light-coloured clothing to facilitate heat loss.
- Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
- Home adaptations: Use blinds or curtains to block sunlight, avoid using ovens or stoves, and ventilate living spaces during cooler hours.
- Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
