DUBAI’S multi-billion-dollar Metro celebrated its first anniversary last month, with the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA)  announcing that the project had ferried 30 million passengers over its first 12 months.

The metro also met and maintained the highest standards in operational efficiency, punctuality and safety throughout the 12 months of operations, the RTA said.

RTA chairman Mattar Al Tayer expressed his delight at the huge success of the metro. “The number of metro users has been on the rise since its launch on 09/09/2009 jumping from 1.8 million passengers a month in October 2009 to 3.3 million passengers in August 2010, recording a growth rate of 183 per cent.

The number of daily travellers  jumped from 54,683 in October 2009 to 116,340 last June, recording a growth rate of 212 per cent. Last July, the metro set a daily record, with the number of passengers hitting 130,529 on July 1.

These figures confirm that the RTA is achieving its strategic objective of raising the share of mass transit modes in the number of person trips to 30 per cent by 2020, with the indicator is currently at 12.6 per cent, Al Tayer said.

The Dubai Metro comprises two lines – the Red Line and the Green Line – which together run a distance of 75 km across 45 stations.

Twenty-one of the Red Line’s 29 stations are operational with five more to come online this month (October), while Green Line is still under construction and scheduled to open in August 2011.