Dubai - MENA Herald: As part of the City Makers Race initiative, announced last year by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council, His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline & Group, awarded the City Makers Race Trophy to the Red Team, during the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Programme for Smart Government awards ceremony, organised by Dubai The Model Centre at The General Secretariat of the Executive Council of Dubai, at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
Red Team’s achievement underlines the diligent work undertaken over a year and the strong collaboration among the team’s four organisations, which enabled it to introduce three pioneer initiatives for the City Makers Race and win the first City Makers Race Trophy.
“Tm” APP, one of the initiatives of the Red Team, also won the “Best Government Partnership” Award, which was also awarded to the team by Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum.
The Award Ceremony was attended by a number of dignitaries including HE Abdullah Abdulrahman Al Shaibani, Secretary General of Dubai Executive Council, Eman Al Suwaidi, Director of Dubai The Model Centre, HE Mattar Mohammed Al Tayer, Director General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors at RTA, HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA, HE Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality, and HE Sami Abdulla Gargash, CEO of Mohammad Bin Rashid Housing Establishment, as well as CEOs and MDs of the government organisations in Dubai, and managers, heads of departments, and employees from the four organisations that comprise the Red Team.
The City Makers Race is an initiative announced by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum for the government sector. It aims to creating the ideal environment for government authorities to compete as integrated teams and to entrench the importance of integrating the efforts of the government sector in achieving excellence in all services offered. It also aims at encouraging the government sector to introduce innovative solutions and initiatives for shared government services, serving all segments of the society and enhancing the happiness of residents.
Commenting on the win by the Red Team, Abdullah Al Hajri, Executive Vice-President, Customer Service at DEWA, and Head of the Red Team said: “I congratulate my colleagues at the Red Team for winning the first City Makers Race. It is an impressive achievement that underlines the hard work of the team throughout the last year. The announcement of this leading initiative by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum was an important and vital step that helped all of us to integrate efforts and strengthen creativity and invocation in the services we provide. It is in line with the vision and directives of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to place the Government Sector in the forefront of Dubai's development process, and achieve people’s happiness and satisfaction.”
The thee initiatives, which enabled the Red Team to gain the Trophy of the Race, support the vision of Dubai Government in enhancing the happiness of all partners, stakeholders, and customers of the government sector. They reinforce the efforts exerted by RTA, DEWA, Dubai Municipality and Mohammed bin Rashid Housing Establishment (MRHE) – the members of the Red Team - to fulfill the goals of Smart Dubai that aims to transform Dubai into the smartest city in the world in three years.
The first initiative: “Tm” which won the “Best Government Partnership” Award during the ceremony, is a smart application that provides – in its first stage- all necessary information for real estate owners, contractors, and consultants in Dubai. It helps achieves transparency by providing information regarding the approval statuses of building permits, constructions, and connections of electricity and water services in government organisations and concerned entities.
The ‘TM’ app has been launched and developed by an in-house team formed by the Red Team. The technical team, headed by Eng. Yousuf Al Khazraji from DEWA, consisted of a number of experts and IT engineers from DEWA, RTA, Dubai Municipality and MRHE.
The second initiative: ‘TARISH’ aims to integrate and unify laws and regulations, and conditions of electricity and water services, construction approvals, and NOCs. The initiative sets a clear framework for the Red Team’s ambitious services, and enhances transparency among landlords, contractors and consultants. TARISH also increases awareness about the Red Team’s projects and activities among the target audience. ‘TARISH’ is an Emirati Arabic word that means: Messenger, which implies the core mission of initiative; sending information to people.
While the third initiative: ‘QAFAY’ aims to establish a sophisticated Geographical Information System (GIS). The system implements full automisation of engineering audits and NOC issuance procedure, provides extensive data on geographical places in Dubai, and integrates the operations of all concerned government entities that are responsible for the issuance of NOCs and government as well as non-governmental approvals. The system will also provide all data and information to all concerned entities in Dubai.
QAFAY’ will help achieve 90% savings in time for employees and stakeholders in issuing NOCs and granting approvals. The system will provide 100% data, information on engineering drawing and geographical maps, and will increase customer satisfaction to 90%. In addition to that, this initiative will allow the Red Team entities to make 90% reduction in paperwork of all concerned organisations. It will achieve reduction in visits to concerned Departments and therefore result in 90% reduction in the carbon footprint caused by the frequent visits of contractors, consultants, landlords and building owners.
QAFAY will provide extensive and updated data related to the smart maps of Dubai, according to the ISO standards. It will also update this data automatically, which will improve decision-making process in the government sector, and obtain accurate results in the field of infrastructure development.
The QAFAY project is divided into two phases. The first one is being implemented in Al Barsha area and includes providing the necessary information to the concerned employees of all government and semi-government organisations about issuing NOCs through Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The second phase will be implemented across the city, and will integrate the operations of all networks in the city as well as implement full automation of checking and updating the city’s network of engineering drawings according to ISO 13567 standards. The Red Team will provide all these pivotal data and information to the concerned parties when the project is completed in October 2016.
80 employees from 16 government organisation formed 4 teams to compete for the City Makers Race. These teams are: The Red Team: comprising Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, Roads & Transport Authority, Dubai Municipality and Mohammed Bin Rashid Housing Establishment. The Green Team: Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services, Dubai Police, Dubai Health Authority and Civil Defence Directorate General. The Yellow Team: Community Development Authority, Dubai Foundation for Women & Children, Dubai Courts and Department of Economic Development. The Blue Team: Mohammed bin Rashid Establishment for SME Development, Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing, Dubai Culture & Arts Authority and Knowledge & Human Development Authority.
