BY MATOVU A. TWAHA

WITH 30 minutes interval, the new bus route, X63, is something to excite commuters from a point near Workers Residential Blocks of Dubai Municipality at Al Qusais, passing through Emirates Road and Al Khail Road up to Al Qouz Industrial Area 3.

With the opening of Route X63, the number of internal bus routes covering the emirate of Dubai rises to 79 routes.

"From this month of July, five standard buses have been deployed on this route to provide daily service from Saturday to Thursday, and eight buses during Fridays and weekends," the Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Public Transport Agency, Mohammed Abu Bakr Al Hashemi.

The move is the latest in a series of measures to beef up public transport so as to pull up its usage from the current dismal six per cent to 30 per cent by 2020.

Al Hashemi said that the buses shuttle at 30-minute interval on normal working days, and at 15-minute interval on Fridays and weekends.

Again from this month, the Public Transport Agency has also introduced some changes on Route 34 through increasing the number of operating buses from six to nine on normal working days, thereby improving trip intervals from 25 minutes to 20 minutes.

Trip Interval has also been improved on Route X92 from 30 to 20 minutes, and the number of buses deployed on Route X23 increased from 12 to 13 buses during Fridays and weekends.

As of the first day of this month, Route (L55) was renamed as (55); where the service will continue through the afternoon and will be open to all passengers.

Hashemi said the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) made introduced these changes "following extensive field surveys carried out by the agency to assess the requirements of several districts in Dubai, and meet the rising demand for this service in several Dubai localities."

"The Public Transport Agency is keen on broadening and upgrading its services to cope with the urban expansion and demographic growth of the whole country, particularly in Dubai, which has a growing profile as a regional commercial and economic hub, and a point attraction for investors and businessmen from all over the globe," he said.

"The RTA is always seeking to expand public transport network to cover various areas in the emirate of Dubai in keeping with the ambitious development plans undertaken by the emirate.""This drive is demonstrated in the deployment of sophisticated, comfortable and safe buses imported from world-class specialised bus manufacturers and fitted with features to serve special needs with exclusive compartments for ladies and children," added Hashemi.