Post by : Jyoti Gupta

                                                                                      Photo:X/@ HH Sheikh Mohammed

On Monday, June 9, Dubai’s Ruler started building the first Metro station of the new Blue Line. This new Metro line will start carrying passengers across Dubai from September 9, 2029.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and also the Ruler of Dubai, was present at the ceremony. He learned about the goals of the new Metro line as the work officially began.

At the event, they showed the design of the Emaar Properties station. This station will be the highest Metro station in the world, standing 74 meters tall. The station will look like a shiny golden cylinder with special designs on the outside.

June 9 is a special date for the Dubai Metro. The first Metro line opened on September 9, 2009, at exactly 9:09:09 pm. The Blue Line will open on the 20th anniversary of the Metro, which has already carried more than 2.5 billion passengers.

When Sheikh Mohammed arrived, he saw a gallery showing the dream of the late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who wanted a Metro in Dubai. There were old photos of Sheikh Mohammed visiting other countries and using trains in the UK, where he got the idea for Dubai’s Metro.

There was also a photo of Sheikh Mohammed from years ago, laying the first stone for the original Metro.

At the ceremony, Sheikh Mohammed approved the design for the Emaar Properties Station. The RTA (Roads and Transport Authority) said Emaar will have the naming rights for the station for 10 years, starting in 2029. More naming rights for other stations will be announced later.

The new station was designed by a famous American company called Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), who also designed the Burj Khalifa. The station will cover about 11,000 square meters and will fit into Dubai’s modern city style. It can hold up to 160,000 passengers a day and will serve 40,000 people living in Dubai Creek Harbour.

The station will look fancy, with tall walls, natural textures, and warm colors. There will be strong materials like Jura limestone and bronze panels, and lots of natural light will come in through glass ceilings.

The Blue Line will be 30 kilometers long and have 14 stations. There will be 28 trains running on the line, making the whole Metro system 131 kilometers long with 78 stations.

The project costs Dh20.5 billion and is expected to make Dh56 million in profits. It should carry 200,000 riders in 2030 and up to 320,000 by 2040. The Metro will help reduce traffic jams by 20%. The line will connect nine important areas in Dubai, where more than one million people will live by 2040.

Travel time on the Blue Line will be between 10 and 25 minutes.

There will be three stations where you can switch to other Metro lines: Creek Station (Green Line), Centrepoint Station (Red Line), and International City 1 Station (Blue Line). There will be nine stations above ground and five underground.

The Blue Line will have bus stops, taxi stands, bike and scooter parking, and spaces for people with disabilities. It will also have the biggest underground station in the Metro network, which can handle 350,000 people a day.

Last December, Dubai’s RTA gave the construction contract to three big companies from Turkey and China: Mapa, Limak, and CRRC.

This is the first transport project in Dubai to fully meet green building standards and has received the highest level of certification for being environmentally friendly.