DUBAI,January 13: Thousands of government officials, including ministers and director generals of departments will not use their cars next Wednesday as the Dubai Municipality will be joined by 13 other entities for this year’s Car-Free Day in Dubai.More than 3,000 cars are expected to be off the roads on January 18 when the Municipality’s annual initiative marks its third anniversary. Their owners will instead take the Metro or buses to get to work. Announcing the details of this year’s initiative, Dubai Municipality Director-General, Hussain Nasser Lootah, said the municipality’s aim is to have ‘a city without cars for a day’ in future. For this, he said, the municipality will involve the private sector in addition to more government departments from next year. “The idea is to protect the environment (from the carbon emissions from cars) and promote the use of mass transport, especially the Metro and buses,” he said. Most of the institutions that are taking part in this years’ initiative are located along the Dubai Metro’s Red and Green lines. “Last year we received an email from the Paris City Authority appreciating our Car-Free Day and informing their intention to observe the same initiative in Paris,” Lootah said, adding that the public in Dubai are also welcome to make the initiative a success. Director of Environment Department at the DM, Hamdan Khalifa Al Shaer said this year’s Car-Free Day is expected to cut at least 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission in Dubai. He said around 1.5 million vehicles ply on Dubai roads every day and carbon emissions contributed by the transport sector is 45per cent of the total pollutants. last year’s initiative encouraged many employees of the Municipality to adopt a new lifestyle of using the Dubai Metro to work. “We have 140 people who started using the Metro after the initiative. They gave up their cars for coming to work and they have freed that many parking lots in the Municipality headquarters’ parking area,” said Al Shaer. Though the Municipality will close its vast parking area on the Car-Free Day, Al Shaer said there would be flexibility in the timing for the arrival of its staff. The institutions participating in this year’s Car-Free Day are the Dubai Land Department, Etisalat, Ministry of Environment and Water, Dubai Police, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dubai Properties Group, Ministry of Public Works, General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs, Al Bayan, Ministry of Education, Dubai Civil Defence, World Trade Centre, and Department Economic Department. Group CEO of Dubai Properties Group, Khalid Al Malik, said about 250 to 300 people from the group are expected to participate.
