Dubai addresses street chaos

Finding your way around Dubai is to become easier with a new street naming system.

DUBAI // A confusing mixture of names and numbers that makes it difficult to navigate around Dubai may soon change. And residents will get a chance to help choose names for their streets. A committee led by Dubai Municipality will take the residents' suggestions into account when picking the new names. Hussein Nasser Lootah, the municipality's director general, said there was a need to determine the identity of each region so as to name the areas effectively.

A municipality statement is expected soon on how the project is progressing. With a combination of names and numbers, finding a way around Dubai can be a baffling and often frustrating experience. Residents are often unaware of the names or numbers assigned to streets, many of which are known by traditionally accepted names. Office or home locations are often described by indicating the nearest landmark such as a shopping mall, supermarket or hotel.

The new street-naming project is expected to resolve this problem and make places more easily accessible. Emirates Post, which is a key partner in the project, said the programme would bring "remarkable improvement" to the delivery of mail. Mana al Suwaidi, director of marketing at Emirates Post, said: "We are working closely with the municipality to develop a modern and streamlined postal addressing system to be part of the mechanism and implementation of the street naming system in Dubai.

"The ultimate goal is to integrate our system (with theirs) to implement door-to-door delivery." The street-naming committee says it plans to put simple and easy names that are appropriate to each area taking into account the historic nature of the emirate and the events associated with the areas as well as names inherited from older generations. Street names will be linked to the area in which they are located. The project will divide the city into 12 areas:

Heritage and Old Souk area The coastal zone Mixed housing areas Areas parallel to Dubai Creek The industrial areas Residential areas of nationals Special financial zones Palace and private housing areas Academic and cultural areas Rural areas International cities area The free zones There will be an emphasis on traditional and old names that have been circulated for generations. Names will be given depending on whether they are connected to the sea or land while other names will be based on types of fish, fishing gear, ships and names connected to different fields.

In the final phase, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid, the Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and Industry and chairman of Dubai Municipality, will be briefed on the proposed list of names. The committee said it would also review the proposals for names in areas of new Dubai such as the Industrial Area, Dubai Financial Centre, Sufooh-1, Sufooh-2 and Dubai Marina. Most of these locations are yet to have clear street names.

Abu Dhabi is also working on a plan to simplify its complicated street naming and numbering system. [e-mail]