UMM AL QAIWAIN // Work has started on a Dh170-million road project that will include the emirate's longest bridge, the Ministry of Public works said yesterday.
The new motorway, which will be called Aabir Road, will stretch 14km from Emirates Road Exit 103 to the Ras al Khaimah border. It will include Umm al Qaiwain's longest bridge, in the Fallaj Mualla area. The ministry declined to give details of its length, which it said it would disclose shortly.
The project is the first in the emirate to make use of the Dh16-billion Northern Emirates infrastructure fund that Sheikh Khalifa, President of the UAE, put in place last year. Lorries will not be allowed to use the new route, which is meant to ease traffic on Emirates Road.
The ministry said the road "will be exclusively for small cars". That plan was welcomed by motorists such as Mudashil Ahmed, a 35-year-old Emirati who said it should cut the number of serious crashes. "Most of the deadly accidents on Emirates Road are involving big vehicles," he said. "I would feel safer driving on a road where there are no big lorries."
Majid al Khalil, 40, a local businessman, praised the project, but said medical facilities, electricity generation and education were other pressing needs the infrastructure fund should address.
