Dubai will spend at least 75bn dirhams ($20.42bn) over the next five years building roads, bridges and a metro system to keep pace with surging population growth, a transport official said yesterday.

The population of the Gulf’s tourism and trade hub has almost doubled over the past decade and may double again to more than 2mn by 2015, according to figures from the Roads and Trans-port Authority.

“We plan to spend not less than 45bn dirhams on roads and 30bn on metro over the next five years,” Mattar al-Tayer, the authority’s chairman said. “We hope that in the coming two to three years there will be no congestion.”

The plans include a four-line metro system which should begin operations in 2009, a floating bridge over Dubai creek, the city’s main waterway, and water taxis that will run along the creek and to man-made islands off the coast. – Reuters