Public parking in Dubai to remain free on Fridays ‘until further notice’

Public parking in Dubai will remain free only on Fridays and public holidays for now, with charges applicable on Saturdays and Sundays, the Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has confirmed.

In a statement, the RTA said the existing system shall remain in place “until further notice”.

The RTA also announced that it will be shifting to new the working week from January 3, 2022, in line with the UAE government directive.

Read: UAE switches weekend, announces four-and-a-half-day working week

Working hours at RTA’s main offices shall be from Monday to Friday, with a weekend holiday on Saturday and Sunday. The working hours shall be from 7.30am to 3.30pm, except for Friday, where the duty time shall be from 7.30am to 12pm (midday).

Service providing centres – including technical testing centres – shall observe a full working week from Sunday to Thursday as currently applies, and Saturday shall be a public holiday. However, on Friday, these centres will operate from 4pm to 9pm.

RTA’s customer happiness centres shall work from Monday to Thursday, from 8am to 7.30pm and on Fridays from 8am until 12pm. Saturday and Sunday will be weekly public holidays.

The authority also confirmed that starting from February 2, the new closure times of the Floating Bridge shall be from 10pm on Saturday up to 6am on Monday to “enable sufficient time for maritime activities, tourist boats and maintenance works of the bridge”.

Metro, Tram and Bus

The Dubai Metro red and green lines shall be in operation from Monday to Thursday from 5am to 1.15am (of the following day). On Friday and Saturday, the metro lines shall operate from 5am to 2.15am (of the following day) and on Sunday, from 8am to 1.15 am (of the following day).

Dubai Tram’s service hours from Monday to Saturday shall be from 6am to 1am (of the following day). On Sunday, the tram shall be in service from 9am to 1am (of the following day).

Dubai Bus will run from Monday to Thursday as well as on Friday, Saturday and Sunday “according to the applicable bus scheduling system, which shall be geared to the demand for service”, the RTA said.