A total of 12 new marine transport stations will be built by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) at the Business Bay Canal and the Dubai Water Canal, Dubai, UAE, said a senior RTA official.
 
The marine transport stations will help boost the country's maritime sector, Mattar Al Tayer, director-general and chairman of the board of executive directors of the RTA, was quoted as saying in an Emirates News Agency (Wam) report.

Five of these stations are being built at the Dubai Water Canal project, which is currently under way, and the remaining seven stations will be built at the Business Bay Canal by 2018, he said.

Al Tayer said the total number of marine transport stations in Dubai Creek, Business Bay Canal and Dubai Water Canal will rise to 18 stations, and that the marine transport sector will witness a sharp rise in the number and available transport modes, stations and passengers with the completion of the link of the Business Bay Canal and the Dubai Water Canal with the Arabian Gulf.

This will render marine transit modes the favourite mobility choice of citizens, residents, and visitors who will be ferried from the shores of the Dubai Creek and the two water canals, he added.

The marine transport sector is an integral part of the mass transit network in the emirate with an estimated 13 million passengers per annum, said the report.