Dubai Award for Sustainable Transport: Saving environment

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman of Emirates Group, on Tuesday honoured the winners of the 8th Dubai Award for Sustainable Transport (Dast) 2015.

The Award is one of the key initiatives developed by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to leverage public and private sectors to contribute to alleviating the traffic congestion, and conserving the environment.

The honouring ceremony was held under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council.

Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA, and a number of heads of public and private entities attended the ceremony.

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) emerged as the winner of the Mobility Management category for an initiative of lifting employees on mass transit buses, which contributed to reducing the use of private vehicles, and encouraging individuals to use public transport means.

Abu Dhabi's Department of Transport (DoT) was the runner-up for launching Abu Dhabi Transportation Mobility Management Implementation Program in January 2014 in continuation of the Mobility Movement Management initiative rolled out by the DOT in 2011.  
The programme is considered one of the most comprehensive projects of its kind worldwide, and sets out ambitious objectives for realising long-term results for Abu Dhabi residents, employees and visitors.

ETA Ascon Group finished third for an initiative entitled: Transport Excellence. Al Murjan Kindergarten was the winner in the category of Transport Safety for an initiative entitled (The safety of Al Murjan blooms an ultimate goal of all). Kids were trained on etiquettes of traffic, safety rules when boarding the bus, being seated in the bus and no standing, no playing during the journey, and conducting oneself properly with bus attendants.

Al Otaiba General Transport came second in this category for an initiative named: Road Hazard Control through Buses and Drivers.

The Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Meterology was third for an initiative to raise the safety of buses lifting less than 22 riders through compliance with additional requirements such as fitting seats with head cushions, fitting all vehicles with ABS braking systems, prohibiting the placing of extra seats in the isle, observing a distance of at least 300 millimeters between seats, and fitting buses with less than 22 seats with RTA-approved speed limiters conforming to the requirements of the UAE model.

Winners of Preservation of Environment award included Emirates Gas, for an initiative named: Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).

The initiative envisages provision of CNG to potential customers as an environment-friendly and clean alternative automotive fuel EMGAS undertook promoting the use of CNG as green alternate transportation fuel in Dubai.

Emirates Gas pioneered a mobile CNG Dispensing unit to help potential Customers in their decision to convert their vehicle fleet to CNG.
Imdaad was second for a project about sustainable fleet management.

TNT Express was third for Biodiesel initiative. TNT rolled out the project to reduce emissions from the diesel fleet and provide alternative use of used cooking oil through using biodiesel B5.

In the mobility of the disabled, the Future Centre for Special Needs was first for an initiative named: Each child needs suitable transit means. The initiative charts out tailor-made plans for each student starting from the boarding of the school bus until disembarkation.

The Emirates Transport took the first place in the school transport category for the Smart System for Students Safety in School Buses Initiative. The initiative includes three sub-initiatives that ensure the world’s best practices in technological and smart procedures, as well as regulations, policies, legislation, and infrastructure, besides qualifying  human resources and ensuring communal responsibility in order to develop school bus system and provide the best methods in students’ security and protection.

In the Smart Apps category, the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners’ Affairs in Dubai won the first place for the e-service residence system, which is part of the UAE Vision Project encompassing all electronic services. The system enables companies to submit and process their transactions around the clock transactions including issuing and renewing passports, changing occupation and status.

The Dubai Ports World ranked second for the Smart System Initiative to Facilitate Entry of Trucks to Jebel Ali Port through External Gates.

The system contributed to reducing errors related to logistic procedures to less than 2 per cent, and slashing traffic congestion on streets around the port, internal roads, external and internal gates of Jebel Ali Port.

The system also contributed to ensuring smooth flow of trucks through Jebel Ali Port internal external gates, besides enabling customers and interested parties to track their transaction progress gradually, not to mention paperwork elimination. The third place prized had been withheld.

Winners of the Special Awards included Hanadi Abu Nemeh, from the ‘Emarat Al Youm’ daily, and Shafaat Shahbandari, from the Gulf News, shared the Best Media Coverage award of Dast.

In the Best Academic Research category, Iad Mohammed Sahnoon, Abdullah Mohammed Shanableh and Khaled Ibrahim Hamad from the University of Sharjah won the Best Research Award entitled (Masar Hamzat). In the Best Student Project Award, the Technical Secondary School won the first position for the Magnetic Levitation Train project submitted by Hamad Khamis Al Busaidi, Hamdan Khaled Al Masaabi and Saeed Khalid Al Hajri.

Khalifa University took the second place, for Smart Parking Facility Project presented by students Mira Saeed Al Yamahi, Lamia Hassan Al Hammadi, Hind Abdullah Al Humairi, and Dana Abdullah Al Muhairi.  The project highlights a building using smart parking technology, which contributes to creating a large number of car parking slots. Student Ramiz Omar Abdul Sattar from Manipal University came third in the Best School Student Project Category.

In the Most Popular Transit Mode, Individual Category, Dubai emirate, 'Kokkatar Chacko Thomas, Najeeb Cheman Basher, Deepak Sunberdas Bhatia, Ramachandran  Shetty, Hary Ram Bhandary were all honoured with prizes.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed also honoured institutions and sponsors of the 8th edition of Dast, and the judges panel, headed by Essa Abdul Rahman Al Dosari.

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