No plan to install toll gates in Al Ain and Al Dhafra regions: DoT

Aya Al Deeb, Staff Reporter

The Department of Transport (DoT) in Abu Dhabi has confirmed that no tollgates will be installed in the city of Al Ain and Al Dhafra region in this period. This comes after the department had announced in July that a tollgate system will be installed at the entrances to Abu Dhabi and for which was operations were scheduled to be launched from mid-October.

This was revealed by Eng Ibrahim Serhan Al Hamoudi, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Land Transport at DoT. He said, “Abu Dhabi’s new tollgate system is to solve the traffic jams occurring in the city of Abu Dhabi, while Al Ain city and Al Dhafra region have no traffic jam problems requiring a tollgate system, so they are outside the plan now.

“It will be a unified system based on a sophisticated electronic payment mechanism without the need to stop to pay fees, and when it is required in Al Ain or Al Dhafra, the same system, which is going to start next October at the major bridges of Abu Dhabi, will be implemented.”

The step also aims at achieving a fully integrated and sustainable uplift for the sector in line with the Abu Dhabi plan for the integration of surface transport network and services in Abu Dhabi.

The toll will be collected on each vehicle crossing any of the four toll gates on Sheikh Zayed Bridge, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Bridge, Al Maqtaa Bridge and Mussafah Bridge. The toll fee will be Dhs4 for every pass during peak hours from Saturday to Thursday (7am—9am and 5pm—7pm). During off-peak hours, on Fridays, and during public holidays, the toll fee will be Dhs2 for every pass. The toll collection system is operational 24/7, with a daily maximum fee of Dhs16 per vehicle. The amount due will be automatically deducted from a prepaid user account (the Integrated Electronic Payment wallet). Vehicles will be automatically identified by their plate number without having to stick a tag on the windshield.

The transport authorities also announced that electric vehicles would be exempted over a period of two years from the launch of the tollgate system, in order to preserve the environment and encourage sustainable living in the Emirate.

All Abu Dhabi registered vehicles on the official system registration launch, on Aug.30, will have automatically registered accounts at no charge.

Account holders will automatically receive an SMS message stating their user-name and password for that account, and can then add any additional vehicles to the registered account as required.

For vehicles registered outside Abu Dhabi, the owner must be registered in the system before crossing the tollgates.

In case a vehicle which is not registered in the tollgate system crosses under the tollgates, the user will be given a grace period of ten business days, starting from the crossing time, to register in the system, otherwise a fine applies.

Vehicles registered in Abu Dhabi may pay the toll fee according to the post-payment system during any vehicle licensing procedure in case of insufficient balance. For vehicles registered outside Abu Dhabi with insufficient credit available in their user account, drivers have five business days to top up the account, otherwise a fine will apply as per the regulations.

Vehicle owners must always keep the information on their licence plates visible and clear at all times to ensure correct data-reading by the system. They must update their personal and vehicle information in the account in the event of any changes occurring to that data within five business days.

A recent report said the Department of Transport - Abu Dhabi (DoT) and the Integrated Transport Centre (ITC) announced the launch of its forthcoming tollgate system in line with the Surface Transport Master Plan (STMP) for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

According to the decision four tollgates on major bridges leading into the city of Abu Dhabi will be active from Oct.15.