The two new Salik gates, namely the Business Bay gate and the Al Safa South gate, will become operational on Sunday, November 24th. These toll gates, situated at the Business Bay Crossing on Al Khail Road and Al Safa South on Sheikh Zayed Road between Al Meydan Street and Umm Al Sheif Street, will increase the total number of Salik gates in Dubai from eight to ten.
The Business Bay area serves as a significant route for motorists coming from Sharjah, Al Nahda, and Al Qusais, as they utilize this bridge to access Al Khail Road, which happens to be one of the busiest roads in the emirate.
According to Ibrahim Al Haddad, the CEO of Salik, these new gates are projected to reduce traffic by up to 16 percent. In a previous interview with Khaleej Times, he explained that the Business Bay Crossing gate will result in a traffic reduction of 12 to 15 percent on Al Khail Road and 10 to 16 percent on Al Rabat Street. On the other hand, the Al Safa South gate will lead to a 15 percent decrease in right-turn traffic volume from Sheikh Zayed Road to Meydan Street, as well as an improvement in traffic flow between Financial Center Street and Meydan Street. Additionally, it will help redistribute traffic to wider First Al Khail Street and Al Asayel Street.
Al Haddad also highlighted that the Al Safa South gate is a technical solution connected to the existing northern Al Safa gate. This means that motorists passing through both the northern and southern Safa gates within an hour will only need to make a single payment.
Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that both new toll gates will be powered almost entirely by solar energy, marking a first for Salik. This is a significant accomplishment that the organization has been focused on.
Earlier this month, Salik Company PJSC, the exclusive toll gate operator in Dubai, firmly denied a widely circulated social media post regarding the potential implementation of dynamic pricing for toll gates in the emirate. The post claimed that new Salik gates would be operational next month and listed corresponding amounts ranging from free to Dh8, depending on off-peak and peak hours. Salik emphasized that this information was completely inaccurate.
However, this wasn’t the first time the idea of introducing dynamic toll gate pricing was mentioned as a solution to reduce congestion on Dubai’s busy roads. In September 2022, Salik stated in its IPO announcement that the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) could potentially implement dynamic pricing by optimizing toll rates based on the time of day. For instance, they could charge higher toll fees for specific lanes or during peak hours.
Currently, Salik charges a fixed fee of Dh4 each time a vehicle passes through any of the toll gates in the city. The company has mentioned that there are dynamic pricing systems in other parts of the world that charge more during peak hours compared to off-peak hours. The dynamic pricing structure is intended to accommodate any future changes, including flexible tariffs or an increase in the number of gates to manage traffic. The final decision on implementing such changes will be made by the Executive Council of Dubai.