Roads & Transport Authority - Archived News Details

Mohammed Obaid Al Mulla, Board Member and Chairman of RTA’s Customers Council, said: “The Customers’ Council is always keen on reaching out to various spectrums of the community to identify their views and suggestions for improving the services of the RTA. Ladies account for a significant attention of the RTA which always endeavours to meet their service requirements. It was therefore imperative to direct the Council to communicate and cater to the needs of ladies as regards RTA’s services.”

Al Mulla made this statement when the Dubai Ladies Club hosted the gathering of RTA’s Female Customers Council in cooperation with the Dubai Women Establishment. The session was attended by engineer Maitha bin Adai, CEO of Traffic & Roads Agency; Lamia Khan, Director of Dubai Ladies Club; Kawthar Kazim, Executive Director of Human Resources & Development & Chairwoman of RTA’s Women Committee; Sheikha Al Jarman, Director of Development and Corporate Performance cum Deputy Chairwoman of RTA Customers Council; Moaza Al Marri, Director of RTA Marketing & Corporate Communication; Hessa Tahlak, Director of Development & Research at the Dubai Women Establishment, and a host of representatives of both parties and businesswomen.

Engineer Maitha started her speech by communicating the greetings of HE Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of the RTA, and thanking the Dubai Women Establishment, and the Dubai Ladies Club who stressed the importance of establishing solid relationships with various spectrums of the community. She reiterated RTA’s keenness on communicating with the public, especially ladies who are a key component of the community. It was imperative to heed to the views and challenges encountered with RTA’s services in order to figure out suitable solutions.

A visual presentation was made highlighting RTA’s Customers Council which was established in 2007 and is considered one of the direct communication channels with the public in identifying customer needs, raising recommendations to the concerned bodies about service improvement as the core job of the Council is to bring happiness to people. The presentation explained RTA’s communication channels namely the Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Call Center (8009090), website, and Ask@rta.ae. It also shed light on the services provided by the RTA to ladies in various transit systems.

Maitha and attendees heeded to a raft of suggestions and ideas expressed by female community leaders as regards a number of RTA’s services such as the metro, public buses and marine transit means. Topics discussed included providing additional services for ladies and children such as reconsidering the possibility of designating places for women waiting for taxis at malls, and intensifying the community awareness programs to showcase the services provided by the RTA to females. Attendees expressed their pleasure with the diversity of RTA’s transport service offering such as dedicating exclusive women areas in the metro, buses and marine transit modes in addition to the Safe Hands service in taxis and Pink Taxi.

Requests fielded by attendees included a request for providing public transport services in the Green Community, allocating parking spaces for pregnant ladies by issuing them permits expiring with the completion of the gestation period, and designating NOL card recharging machines at metro stations for the use of ladies. One lady inquired about the possibility of issuing parking cards to elderly women without requiring them to be the registered owners of such vehicles. It was explained that it is not a condition that the vehicle has to be registered in the name of the elderly, but rather that she has to be on board the vehicle in order to benefit from such a service.

“The Council will study ideas discussed and look into the possibility of implementing the most feasible ones guided by the prevailing laws and regulations observed by the RTA in this regard,” said Maitha. She recommended attendees to download RTA’s smart apps on their phones in order to avail the services smoothly in a way that saves much of their time and effort.

Ms. Shamsa Saleh, Executive Director of Dubai Women Establishment, said: “Since the Dubai Women Establishment is committed to support all efforts aimed to serve the needs of Emirati women & empowering them to play an active role in the community, we are pleased with the hosting of this excellent gathering in coordination with the RTA which share with us the vision of making Dubai city more women-friendly. Therefore we hope discussions and ideas exchanged will foster ideas and frame new concepts for the benefit of women.”