NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL

At last, another way off the island

Sheikh Khalifa Bridge opened yesterday, allowing cars a new route on and off Abu Dhabi. Courtesy Inside The National

ABU DHABI - OCT 15: The 1.4km Sheikh Khalifa Bridge opened yesterday morning, clearing the way for drivers to bypass all of Abu Dhabi island from the E10 motorway.

Officials hope the 10-lane span will help ease congestion in the city’s often gridlocked roads. It is the first bridge to connect Abu Dhabi Island with Saadiyat and Yas islands.

Ashraf Abbas, 28, a telecoms engineer who lives on the Corniche and drives to Media City in Dubai each day for work, said he was looking forward to trying the new route.

“Travel between Abu Dhabi and Dubai has got much busier since the start of the credit crunch,” he said, as many people were opting for less-expensive housing in Dubai. “Getting out of the city can be one of the slowest parts of the journey, so if I can avoid all those traffic lights then that will be great.”

The new 27km route allows drivers a high-speed conduit between Port Zayed, near the Corniche, and the motorway in the Shahama district. It also passes through some of the highest-profile development projects in the country, including the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and Louvre Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island, which is designed to be the cultural centre of the capital.

Yas Island, just beyond Saadiyat, will be the venue for the Formula One Grand Prix on November 1; several theme parks, golf courses, hotels and shops are planned to spring up there as well.

The bridge and motorway were opened at a ceremony attended by dignitaries that included Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.

The chairman of the Tourism Development and Investment Company, Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon, spoke of his delight at the completion of the 29-month project just before a mosaic of Sheikh Khalifa was unveiled.

“The Sheikh Khalifa Bridge highlights a major achievement in the progress of Abu Dhabi, as Saadiyat Island is set to become one of the world’s leading destinations,” Sheikh Sultan said. “We anticipate large numbers of visitors with the upcoming opening of distinctive museums and other highly prominent tourism attractions on Saadiyat, and we are certain that the bridge and expressway will be pivotal to its success.”

The bridge is another of the elements of the Government’s ambitious 2030 transport plan to ease travel around the city.

It is one of 32 projected crossings planned between the capital and the almost 6,000 hectares being developed on the islands. There will be 13 bridges alone to provide access to Sowwah Island, where the new Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange headquarters will be based, along with the central business district.

Drivers, meanwhile, hoped it would simply make traffic less frustrating on the island.

Wyndel Diole, 39, a taxi driver from Cebu in the Philippines, said he welcomed the new bridge.

“We need something to help the traffic flow,” Mr Diole said. “The last few weeks since the schools opened again have been very busy. The motorway will be good because it will be so much easier to get out of the city but also because more people will use that road and so the city centre should be quieter, too.

“It normally takes me about one hour and 30 minutes to take a passenger from Abu Dhabi to Dubai. With the new road I hope it should take me about 20 minutes less.”

“At the moment I think the traffic around the city is getting much worse,” said his colleague Chamberlain Geologo, 41, of Manila, who has worked in Abu Dhabi for more than a year. “Anything that makes the cars move a bit quicker, I think is a good idea.”

Commuters saw utility in the new road as well. “This is definitely good news,” said Hisham Shaarani, 22, of Cairo, who has lived in the UAE for 16 years. “If it means I can avoid driving through the city twice a day at rush hour, I am happy. I work on Falah Street so it is not that close to the Corniche, but if I take this new road I can drive up to Falah Street against the flow of traffic, so it should be quiet. It normally takes me about 15 minutes to get out of Dubai and 15 minutes into Abu Dhabi, with 45 minutes on the highway.

“Hopefully, this will take at least 15 minutes off my journey.”

Dominique Richard, the assistant general manager of the Beach Rotana Abu Dhabi, in the city’s Tourist Club Area, said he hoped the new road would ease congestion outside the hotel.

“We are very happy about the bridge being opened,” he said. “We have a lot of trucks and traffic in front of the hotel and we welcome anything that might help reduce that.”

Expats may face driving tests

ABU DHABI - OCT 15: Expatriates from places such as the UK, Canada and Australia would need to pass new tests before receiving their UAE driving licences, under proposals to improve road safety tabled yesterday.

Taxi drivers would be required to have at least two years of driving experience in the UAE before being allowed to work. Other major reforms suggested by a UK consultancy hired by the federal Government included requiring drivers to be at least 20 years old before they can operate some kinds of heavy vehicles and for all new drivers to undergo 30 training sessions.

The proposals, aimed at unifying licensing, training and testing procedures across the country, were debated at a session attended by representatives from the consultancy, Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), as well as public and private transport officials.

The TRL representatives said the proposals reflected international best practices, but some met with immediate resistance.

The suggestion that taxi drivers should have 24 months of motoring experience here before working in the UAE, for instance, did not sit well with taxi officials.

“This is not practical. We already have a shortage of drivers. We need 50 per cent more drivers every year than we already have,” said Masood Hashem, the director of compliance, regulation and licensing at TransAD, the Abu Dhabi taxi regulator. “The sector would die, and the salaries of taxi drivers will double.” He said higher standards were important, but should be balanced against the availability of qualified drivers.

TRL’s Britta Lang emphasised that the recommendations were still in the consultation stage.

Proposals that did not have support of the people affected such as the taxi recommendation, or another that would allow new drivers to learn from someone other than a licensed instructor would not be forced upon them.

“Where maybe it is international best practice, the road network here may not allow it to be done in a sensible way,” she said.

The recommendations were debated over several hours yesterday, as a group of transport and traffic officials, representatives of public transport companies and training experts from the seven emirates worked towards toughening the licensing system.

TRL will send out detailed questionnaires next week, Ms Lang said, and based on feedback, the proposals would be revised.

A final report will be presented by the end of this year to Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, the Minister of Interior, said Col Gaith al Zaabi, the director of traffic for the ministry.

It was suggested that expatriates from countries such as the UK, Canada and Australia, who, if they already hold a driving licence, are currently exempt from passing the UAE driving test, should be required to take a theoretical and practical test before receiving their UAE licence.

“The knowledge of local road safety requirements is quite incompetent,” Ms Lang said. “Many people don’t know the road signs and are not aware of the safety requirements.”

TRL recommended the minimum age for obtaining a licence for heavy motorcycles or public transport vehicles should be 20 years old.

“Increasing the minimum age for licences has proved effective in reducing accidents,” Ms Lang said.

She said that many countries had graduated licensing schemes for young people because they tended to be involved in more traffic crashes.

A 2004 Scandinavian study found that increasing the minimum age from 16 to 17 reduced new drivers’ accidents by 10 per cent, while increasing it from 20 to 21 did so by five per cent.

Among new categories proposed for new licenses were two for motorcycles – light and heavy – and several for light vehicles, including private drivers hired by families, drivers of emergency vehicles and drivers who are physically handicapped.

Dr Gehad Esbaita, general manager of Emirates Driving Company, agreed that anyone working as a driver should undergo additional training and licensing for their particular profession. “I’ve been addressing this issue since the launch of the company in 2003, and I am positive that by doing this, accidents committed by drivers will drop by 50 per cent,” he said.

He said the normal drivers’ licence is enough for motorists who use the road between one and two hours a day, but professional drivers, who use the road up to 15 hours a day, should undergo special training, and should be physically fit and have special training.

“The drivers’ licence is like a high school diploma,” he said. “People who want to specialise in a certain field go to university. And to become a driver by profession, one needs to specialise in that field.”

Rpresentatives from driver training centres strongly opposed a proposal to allow new drivers to be trained by someone with significant driving experience, and not necessarily a professional teacher.

“This is not professional at all,” said Hany Kamal Mohamady, manager of the test department for the Belhasa Driving Centre in Dubai. “Maybe it is acceptable in other countries but here it is different.

“Now you are dealing with more than 200 nationalities in the same place.”

Safety audit under way for 4,500km of highways

ABU DHABI - OCT 15: A two-man team armed with a camcorder and a GPS device took to Abu Dhabi’s roads yesterday, beginning a three-week audit of infrastructure designed to make the emirate’s roads safer.

“Transition” roads from the Maqta and Musaffah bridges up to the E11 were the first targets of the audit, which will cover all major roads off the island of Abu Dhabi.

More than 4,500km of roads will be checked during the process, said the Department of Transport, which is undertaking the audit. Work should be completed by November 5.

Auditors are on the lookout for road design features and other conditions that create the potential for crashes or that might make accidents more severe.

Each road will be checked twice, once during the day and once at night, to ensure issues are noted in different driving conditions.

“We are looking at things that might compromise driver safety,” said Jamie Castle, a senior consultant with the Transport Research Laboratory, a London-based company working for the department on the project. Problem areas will be taped and the location’s co-ordinates marked for further assessment.

Issues being checked include roadside safety, the visibility of signs and pavement markings, the alignment of roads, traffic-calming measures, access to and from the highway network, and the merging of traffic, said Faisal Ahmed al Suwaidi, the general director of highways at the department.

“We hope that the audits will identify as many engineering deficiencies in the network as possible,” Mr al Suwaidi said in an e-mail. “The [road safety audit] recommendations will be forwarded to DoT’s maintenance teams for implementations.

“The safety recommendations that are high risk but include minimal remedial efforts will be the first to be implemented. Then, and gradually, the other recommendations will be implemented.”

Recommendations will be presented to the department, along with an evaluation of risks and the cost and time it will take to fix problems.

“The DoT will implement all recommendations that are proven to save lives or reduce the severity of injuries,” Mr al Suwaidi said.

Audits will continue along the E-series of highways inside the emirate.

A team of experts is also developing a set of road safety audit guidelines for the emirate.

This year, full audits were undertaken on the E22, connecting Abu Dhabi to Al Ain, and the E30, the lorry road running between these locations.

Recommendations coming out of that, including trimming vegetation that obscured road signs and repairing crash barriers, are being implemented by the department’s contractors.

Bollywood colour dazzles filmgoers

ABU DHABI - 0CT 15: The 1,200 seats were sold out at the Emirates Palace hotel last night for the highly anticipated premiere of Blue, Bollywood’s first underwater thriller.

The film reportedly boasts the largest budget in the Indian film industry’s history, estimated at more than US$20 million (Dh73.5m), with a plot that centres on three friends who search for treasure in the shark-infested waters off the coast of the Bahamas.

Lara Dutta, a former Miss Universe-turned Bollywood actress, wore a black lace and silk Louis Vuitton gown on the red carpet as she made her appearance last night at the Middle East International Film Festival.

The only leading female member on the cast, she spoke proudly about how the film helped her morph from being hydrophobic to a swimmer to a certified diver in just six months.

“It feels fantastic,” she said. “To be one among the men. I can take credit for what I did along side them.”

This is her third visit to Abu Dhabi. Dutta was here last year, shooting at the Emirates Palace hotel for another film. “I have seen the festival grow with each year. It is an extreme honour to be here,” she said. “I am looking forward to seeing not only my own films but others that are being screened.”

Twinkle Khanna, wife of Akshay Kumar, one of the film’s stars, sparkled in a turquoise sari designed by Laila Motwane.

She said she regularly dressed her husband, who wore a beige suit by Gucci and Versace shoes, but clueless about fashion. “He doesn’t know who he is wearing,” she said.

During a press conference yesterday afternoon members of the cast, including Kumar, spoke about undergoing six months of rigorous training in Koi Samui, Thailand.

“Usually, if I am playing a cricketeer in a film, I will take a few days to practice before we shoot,” said the action specialist.

“But with Blue, we had to undergo more than six months of training. Otherwise, we would’ve just been three idiots in a pond.”

The training was on top of the requirement that the actors have scuba-diving licenses to be able to participate in the film, as shooting required heading to depths of more than 100 feet (30m). While Dutta and Sajay Dutt had to earn their certification, some of the cast, such as Kumar and Zayed Khan, were already trained.

“I have scuba dived before but it was nothing to the extent that we did here,” Khan said. “After 110 feet, it becomes professional diving. Diving that deep does take a toll on your body and it takes everything in you just to do two minutes of film.”

He said the actors were face to face with an assortment of unpredictable sea life.

“It was a fantastic experience,” he said. “I want to do it again. I was tempted to come back home and get some sharks as pets.”

Blue is the first feature for the director Anthony D’Souza, who has previously directed music videos, commercials and advertising campaigns and 52 episodes of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.

Because of the extensive time spent shooting under water, D’Souza brought in several specialists from Hollywood: the underwater cinematography expert Pete Zuccarini, who worked on the Pirates of the Caribbean series, and James Bomalick, of the Indiana Jones films. It was Bomalick’s first Bollywood experience, he said, and not much of a departure from its US counterpart.

“However, water always makes it interesting and presents it own challenges,” he said. “Water movies are always more difficult. For a short scene, you spend a long time in the water. It did put pressure on us but the team pulled it off together.”

The soundtrack includes Chiggy-Wiggy, a song composed by AR Rahman and the pop singer Kylie Minogue, who also makes a cameo appearance in the film.

Rahman, who won worldwide acclaim and an Academy Award last year for the soundtrack for Slumdog Millionaire, composed the rest of the music.

He flew into the festival yesterday to hold a free master class on composing music for more than 50 members of the general public, where he spoke of the challenges involved in putting together a modern musical score before attending the film’s Abu Dhabi premiere last night.

“Audiences are changing, in India and internationally,” he said. “They have come of age. The exposure that they have now, the Indian audience knows it when you try and copy a scene from a Hollywood film.

“They are looking for more exciting stuff and that keeps us on our toes. When I started working with music, there was a lot I had to sacrifice, in terms of textures and tones, because I knew that the audience wouldn’t get it. But now they are reviewing every single aspect of my music.”

Blue also represents one of the most mainstream Bollywood films to date, something Khan figures reflects an international thirst for cinematic efforts that are slightly over the top.

“We are a bit melodramatic and so are our films,” he said. “And I think the world likes that.”

First birth from frozen eggs, and three more on the way

DUBAI - OCT 15: An Emirati woman recently gave birth to a baby conceived using a frozen egg, the first birth of its kind in the Gulf region, and three other women have become pregnant using the same technique.

The 40-year-old woman gave birth to a baby boy three months ago after undergoing treatments at the Dubai Gynaecology and Fertility Centre.

“This is a huge development for us,” said Dr Samir Radi, the centre’s senior embryologist.

“Not only this lady, three other women who used this technique got pregnant and will be delivering their babies in the next few months.”

Doctors at the centre said the baby weighed 3.3kg at birth and was healthy.

The delivery represented a major boost to the difficult process of conception by frozen eggs.

The technique had only a two per cent success rate until recently, Dr Radi said, which meant doctors were reluctant to use it.

Eggs have not responded well to freezing, which resulted in the low success rate.

However, a new technique used at the Dubai centre, called vitrification, has improved results by using a slow freezing process.

“After implementing [vitrification] we have seen the success with the frozen egg technique,” Dr Radi said. “This method for freezing eggs ensures the egg and its surrounded area is protected.”

An alternative method uses frozen embryos, in which the egg is fertilised and then frozen.

According to the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, there have been only 900 babies born using frozen eggs worldwide.

It said there were around 6,000 frozen eggs in the UK, of which 150 have been turned into embryos.

The process of freezing eggs is relatively new; it was first allowed in Britain in 2000.

Expert team for Dubai to fight human trafficking

DUBAI - OCT 15: Responding to calls for a more concentrated effort to fight human trafficking, Dubai yesterday announced that a task force of sociologists, psychologists, legal researchers and female prosecutors would be formed to handle all such cases.

The task force, established by the Dubai Attorney General, Issam al Humaidan, will also develop new laws to deal with the problem, which until now has been handled at the local level.

The move was welcomed by social workers and others who have lobbied for such a team.

“We have been asking for such a specialised human trafficking task force in the public prosecution for a while now as it will protect the rights of the victims,” said Afra al Basti, the chief executive of the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children.

“Having public prosecutors who are specialised in human trafficking cases will strengthen the system, increase its productivity and speed up the cases,” she said.

“They will have the needed knowledge to deal with these cases such as the international treaties and protocols.”

The number of prosecutions for human trafficking in Dubai doubled last year to 20 from 10 in 2007, according to statistics released this year by the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking.

In one high-profile case, 11 people were arrested in Dubai in June in connection with a ring in which a 16-year-old girl was forced into prostitution.

The task force will be headed by the advocate general, Khalifa bin Deemas, and will include experienced professional prosecutors. It will also work with local and federal agencies.

“This inception is part of our strategic target to ensure a safer and more just society by deterring these kinds of crimes by the use of experienced and specialised professionals,” Mr bin Deemas said. “The team is experienced in human trafficking cases and has set protocols and standards to which they will adhere when investigating the crimes.”

Legal, psychological and sociological help and support will be offered to victims, he said, and a campaign will be launched to alert the public to the dangers of such crimes.

Col Mohammed al Mur, the director general of the Dubai Police legal and disciplinary control department, under which the centre for the monitoring of human trafficking falls, said yesterday’s announcement signified considerable progress in implementing the 2006 federal anti-trafficking law.

“It is important for those investigating human trafficking cases to understand the sensitivities of these cases, especially when dealing with the victims, so it is a good step to have psychologists involved in the investigations,” he added.

Police officials call for peaceful end to protests

Abu Dhabi - OCT 15:  Police officials yesterday called for a new approach to resolving a rising number of private-sector labour disputes, saying the emphasis should be “not on confrontation but on negotiation”.

While labour strikes are illegal in the UAE for public workers, there has been an increase in private-sector protests over late wages, bad living conditions and the lack of overtime pay.

Some have been violent, but the officials said yesterday that non-violent demands of labourers should be considered and resolved peacefully in keeping with global customs.

“When wages are delayed by one or two months, workers are forced to protest,” said Col Mohammed Eid al Mazloum, director of the operations department at Sharjah Police. “We resorted to or were forced towards negotiating because of the consequences of 2008 and 2009. Policemen had to interfere to end these problems.”

Speaking at Abu Dhabi Police Headquarters during a conference analysing security implications of the global financial crisis in the UAE, Col al Mazloum showed footage of vandalism he said was caused by protesting labourers, including images of overturned vehicles and broken police cars. Most of the disputes, he said, were a result of “late wages, lack of over time, living conditions”.

He declined to give a specific number of strikes during the last year but said that most started with workers showing up late, followed by halting work, then assembling and taking to the streets.

Dr Jasem Antali, a police officer and labour-law expert who was also attending the conference, agreed that officials should concentrate more on resolving conflicts than on breaking up strikes.

“There needs to be an emphasis not on confrontation, but on negotiation,” he said.

While changes to labour laws governing strikes in the UAE were unlikely, he said, “we should adopt a peaceful method”.

He added that a better legal framework was needed to govern labour and financial disputes.

The Dubai Police general department of legal and disciplinary control, which runs a centre for the monitoring of human trafficking, has received 344 worker complaints since it was set up in February, 76 per cent of which were related to non-payment of salaries, according to the centre’s records.

Forty of the 69 protests staged in Dubai since February were because of non-payment of salaries, the department said.