Dubai beefs up school bus fleet for new academic year

Dubai's Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) will be operating as many as 440 school buses during the 2021-2022 academic year.

The fleet has been beefed up to provide safe and smooth school transport services to students of different ages.

It's also aimed at encouraging parents to make the switch from private vehicles to school buses.

A total of 7,300 students from 22 schools are currently registered in the service, which is operated by the Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC) at the RTA.

The buses are fitted with hi-tech devices for monitoring and tracking the vehicles as well students.

Devices include cameras, sensors to ensure no student is left behind in the bus, an emergency button to communicate with the control centre, a GPS-based electronic tracking system, Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) system, and an engine self-extinguishing system.

"DTC has taken extensive precautionary measures to ensure the safety of students such as sanitising school buses before and after the boarding of students and limiting the usable seats to 50% of the bus capacity," said Mansour Rahma Al Falasi, CEO of DTC.

"Parents can also track the movement of the bus and students, and figure out the pick-up and drop-off points through a dedicated portal," added Al Falasi.

#Dubai Taxi Corporation at @rta_dubai has increased the number of school buses in operation during the upcoming school year 2021-2022 to as many as 440 buses. https://t.co/jflNNfA6G0 pic.twitter.com/EjQNKLzYF6

— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) August 2, 2021