Dubai sees new Salik toll gate, Motorists spot changes on Al Khail Road

 

Car owners have uploaded to the media new gates of Salik in Dubai. The two new toll gates will make the total Salik in Dubai to 10, and they are Business Bay Crossing on Al Khail Road and Al Safa South on Sheikh Zayed Road between Al Meydan Street and Umm Al Sheif Street.

According to information disclosed in its weekly report on its half-year financial results issued on Tuesday, Salik Company PJSC, Dubai’s exclusive tollgate operator, also stated that the new toll gates are set to be launched by the end of November this year.

The picture that was posted to the media on Tuesday was taken on Al Khail Road before entering the Business Bay bridge going to Sharjah from Dubai. It illustrates the conventional silver board that will have Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) which will identify the car and the sticker tag that will read Salik.

The new Salik gates were first introduced early this year and their introduction was seen as a move that “will enhance traffic management as well as traffic flow and also reduce traffic jam in the major corridors in Dubai.”

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) stated in January that the new Salik gates’ locations have been chosen according to the traffic flow studies as they aim to control traffic circulation and congestion, thus, directing a portion of the traffic through the additional roads with greater capacity to make the traffic flow better and smoother for all drivers in Dubai.

New Salik gates to help in reducing traffic

RTA earlier stated that the two new Salik toll gates will help eliminate traffic congestion by up to 42 percent on major routes in Dubai.

Particularly, the Salik on Business Bay Crossing will impact :

• Diverting traffic from Jebel Ali to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and Emirates Roads
• Reduce traffic congestion on Al Khail Road by between 10 and 15 percent
• Introducing up to 16 per cent traffic reduction from Al Rebat Street
• Lower the traffic levels at Financial Centre Street by 5%
• Reducing total number of hours wasted daily on Al Khail Road’s congested segment between Al Rebat and Ras Al Khor Streets by 20,000 hours in each direction

 

Al Safa South Salik, meanwhile, is expected bring in:Al Safa South Salik, meanwhile, is expected bring in:

• Downward adjustment of the proportion of right-turning traffic switching between Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Meydan Street to 15 per cent
• They also cut the traffic inflow from Al Meydan and Al Safa streets to Sheikh Zayed Road down to 42 per cent.
• Minimizing traffic intensity on Sheikh Zayed Road in the corridor between Financial Centre and Latifa Bint Hamdan Streets by 4 per cent
• Levelling up by 4 per cent the traffic volumes through First Al Khail Road and Al Asayel Streets.

How Salik works

To the present, only eight of Salik gates are in full operation in the entire Dubai area. The BOT projects are Al Mamzar North, Al Mamzar South, Al Garhoud Bridge, Al Maktoum Bridge, Airport Tunnel, Al Safa, Al Barsha and Jebel Ali.

Every time a car on Salik passes through a Salik toll gate the RFID on the car reads the sticker on the windscreen and a toll fee of Dh4 is debited from the holder’s account of prepaid tolls which can be recharged online or through resets. Penalties are imposed for lack of sufficient balance in the account or for going through Salik without a valid tag.

As many as 593 million passages were registered at Salik’s tollbooths last year. In January-June of this year 238 Ofcom regulatory decisions were recorded. Five million trips have been recorded at the eight Toll Gates and this has led to Dh1. $1 billion of half-year revenues that rose by 5%. It said operating profit dropped 6 per cent year on year for the period.

Toll gates in the capital:

Another sub-variant of the road toll system is also present in Abu Dhabi where Darb was implemented in January 2021. In a manner similar to Dubai, motorists using any of the major bridges that connect the city to the capital city of Al Ain which includes Al Maqtaa Bridge, Mussafah Bridge, Sheikh Zayed Bridge and the recently opened Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Bridge are also charged Dh4 daily.