RTA studies underground network to move people, goods and services

Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is examining an integrated underground system that would carry people, goods and services beneath the city. RTA Director General Mattar Al Tayer outlined the idea on 13 October 2026 at the Mohammed bin Rashid Leadership Forum, The National reported. It is a study, not an approved project.

No routes, capacity, cost or schedule have been announced. Gulf News said the stated goals are to take pressure off surface roads, connect residential and business districts, move deliveries below ground and make neighbourhoods easier to walk. Al Tayer framed Dubai's transport future in three layers: underground, at street level and in the air.

He backed the case with traffic figures. Dubai's roads handle more than 11 million trips a day, roughly 7,000 a minute. Over 6 million people move around the city in daylight hours, a number RTA expects to double by 2040. The authority wants one in four journeys to be autonomous by 2030, and driverless taxis have already logged more than 4 million km in the emirate.

Some underground work is already under way. The Dh20.5 billion Metro Blue Line will run 30 km with 14 stations, about 15.5 km of it below ground, serving Al Warqa, Mirdif, Academic City, Dubai Silicon Oasis and International City. The first phase of the Dubai Loop, a tunnel system RTA is building with The Boring Company, will link DIFC with Dubai Mall at a cost of Dh565 million.

"Behind every trip is time from a person's life," Al Tayer said. For now the wider underground network remains a study, with nothing for residents or buyers to act on yet.