Dubai Metro, a rapid transit rail network owned by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Dubai Metro is a program and the project that I researched on was the Red Line and Green Line of the Metro. Dubai Metro was the longest driverless metro acknowledged by the Guinness World Records in 23 May 2011 with a total length of 74.6 kilometres. The total length of the Red Line is 52.1 kilometres and the Green Line is 22.5 kilometres. The construction of the Dubai Metro started in May 2005. The planned completion time was in September 2009 and they did manage to launch it on that time however, only 10 out of 29 stations were opened on the day of launch. The total planned amount of stations in Dubai Metro is 47 stations. The project was then fully completed and operational in March 2014.
Having a vision and mission is important in an organization because it provides a purpose and direction for the organization and imbues in their employees a sense of belonging and identity. Not only that, a vision and mission transform an organization’s goals and objectives into actual working structures and then assign the tasks to departments that are responsible for implementing them into day-to-day operations. The vision and mission in an organization is necessary to motivate employees because it gives them a clear path or goal to work towards to and in turn help them to perform efficiently and effectively. The vision of RTA is to have a “safe and smooth transport for all”. The traffic conditions in Dubai are getting worse following the rise in number of vehicles owned which in turn gave them the idea to build a Metro to reduce the traffic congestion. This can also improve the living standard of the locals.
Their mission is to “develop an integrated and sustainable transportation systems and provide a distinguished services to all stakeholders to support Dubai’s comprehensive growth plans through preparing policies and legislations, adapting technologies and innovative approaches, and implementing world-class practices and standard”. In the first two days of its launch, the Dubai Metro had 67,000 passengers in the first day and 47,000 passengers in the second day. 7 years after Dubai Metro was launched, statistics now show that 118,571,429 passengers use the Metro every year and a total of 830 million passengers.
Special challenges
The companies that were involved in the construction of the Dubai Metro project were Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Corporation, Obayashi Corporation, Kajima Corporation and Turkish civil engineering group Yapi Merkezi. Concept and Studies is one of the challenges the Dubai Metro project has faced. This is because the companies that were involved in the project are international companies, which means that there is a language barrier when it comes to communication. The challenge arises when there is a discussion about its design or even the changing of requirements and circumstances. To overcome this challenge, RTA can hire the aid of a translator to help with the communication with the Japanese companies.
Besides that, another challenge would be the geographical location in which the Dubai Metro project is carried out AT. The locations of some of the stations were situated in congested areas. This results in difficulties in bringing the raw materials for the construction of the Metro on site. Not only that, as the construction is on going, it would need to close up a few lanes in the congested area for safety purposes and this will create more congestion in the area. There are some underground stations as well and tunnelling job would be required however, the underground stations were located below old cities, which makes the tunnelling even trickier. When carrying out the tunnelling process, construction workers would have to be extra careful not to damage the existing foundation of the buildings.
Moreover, the Dubai Metro project also faces a time constraint when constructing. The amount of time given to complete the entire project was 49 months. Within this time, they would need to complete a total of 74.6 kilometres of rail, stations and depots. There were additional stations and depots which were not in the initial plan that were added in the later stages in the project. The changes included an additional 4.5 kilometres of track from the junction of Dubai Airport to Emirates Road with extra stations and depots, an extra station at the Mall of the Emirates and a 4 kilometre extension with extra stations in the Green Line at Jadaff. The Dubai Metro was able to launch at the time allocated to them however, only several stations were open to the public because the others were not completed yet. It took them an additional 5 years to complete all 47 stations and depots of the Dubai Metro.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders is an individual, a group or an organization who is impacted by the outcome of a project. They have an interest in the success of the project, and can be within or outside the organization that is sponsoring the project. One of the stakeholders of the Dubai Metro is the customer. Traffic conditions in Dubai were getting more and more severe for example, traffic congestions, increase in number of car ownership and high rates of traffic fatalities. As stated above, RTA’s vision is to provide a safe and smooth transport for all. When the Dubai Metro is completed, it would be easier to get around Dubai using the Metro. Traffic on the road would reduce because of the efficiency of the Metro. It would also be good to the environment because of the reduction in carbon footprint.
Another stakeholder would be the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) themselves. RTA is the project manager of the project. If the project is a success and people would use the Metro more than vehicles, it means the revenue that RTA will earn will increase. What they would want to know is the cost of constructing the Dubai Metro. In the short term, if the cost were higher than revenue, they would be making a loss. They would be engaged by having a meeting every month to make sure that everything is going according to budget and schedule. They will be engaged with their suppliers.
Next stakeholder would be the Government. The role of the government in the project is that they are the main sponsors of the project. Without the budget that was given by the government, which amounts up to $3.4bn, the project would not have been carried out. The government would also want to know whether a project like this would be able to benefit the overall community or not and also, whether is there added value to its passengers. In the event that the project is approved, they will require full disclosure of the progress of the project. The Road and Transport Authority (RTA) will engage the government. They would like to be kept in touch every alternative month through a meeting in the office or ad hoc if necessary.
Major risks
There are several risk the Dubai Metro faced. First of all, financial risks. If a company is unable to finance a project, then all operations of the project will be stopped. This results in the delay of the project’s completion time. The Dubai Metro project was given a budget of $3.4bn. There is also a risk that the price of dollar will depreciate during the time of construction, thus making it more expensive to purchase the raw materials for the construction of the Metro. There are ways to counter this problems. RTA can find commercial banks or international banks to help fund the project, but those banks would require something as a collateral in case they do receive their money back. Therefore, there is also a huge risk when borrowing money from commercial or international banks. The Dubai Metro project has backing by number of organizations such as Mashreqbank and Mizuho Corporate Bank, so it is assumed that the Project Company would be able to raise finance for this project.
Besides that, fully automated Metro like this would still require some human supervision to prevent incidents like train collision and breaking down of the Metro. Even the operations and servicing and maintenance of the train have to be kept in good condition. If problems as stated above occurs often, the people would have lack of faith and trust in taking the public transport because it compromises their safety. It is also inconvenient if the public transport keep breaking down. Therefore, to avoid this problem, the RTA came up with a solution to hire a third party organization called Serco. Serco Group plc. was formed back in 1929 and is now a FTSE top 250 company managing over 500 contracts worldwide. Serco operates in 4 different geographies, which are the United Kingdom and Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. It also operates across six sectors, which are Defence, Justice & Immigration, Transport, Health and Citizen Services. Serco has entered a 5 years contract that is worth up to $800 million and its job is to handle the operations and the maintenance of the Dubai Metro. Serco holds full responsibility to any operating risks, because if these risks are not dealt carefully, there will be a decrease in revenue and will increase technical risks as well.
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Main lessons
The Dubai Metro project is a mega project that involves a 74.6 kilometres Metro line with 47 stations and depots. For a project like this to be successful, the project manager must have a clear, strong and unwavering vision. The vision of RTA is “a safe and smooth transport for all”. With this goal in mind, RTA proposed to build this Metro because of the terrible traffic conditions on the road and also the amount of accident fatalities. Building the Metro not only does it benefit the citizens, it can also save the environment as it reduces the carbon monoxide that is being emitted by the vehicles. However, there are also some down side in the planning phase. The whole Dubai Metro project was delayed because of poor planning. It was said to be open on 9 September 2009. The Metro was opened but only certain stations were open. The constructions of the other stations were not yet completed and RTA extended the track and added a few more stations.
Furthermore, if I were to have to manage a similar project, I would follow the risk management the Dubai Metro took. First of all, building a Metro in Dubai is something that was not done before. Therefore, risk management is essential in this project. The risks of the Dubai Metro project were carefully listed out. This process can help minimize the impact of the risk. Taking the operations risks as an example, as stated that this is the first time a Metro was built in Dubai, therefore the people lack the skills and knowledge to do the operations of the Metro like guiding the trains or even maintaining and servicing the trains, keeping it in peak condition. RTA decided to enter a contract with a third party company called Serco to handle the operations of the Metro. This would shift all the risks to Serco.