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Dubai Naturalization & Residency Administration to introduce automated entry service at Dubai Airport

16 June 2002

Under the directives of H.H. General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai and the UAE Defence Minister and as a consequence of the active follow up by H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation and Chairman of Emirates Airline, the Ministry of Interior, Naturalization & Residency Administration Dubai (DNRD), plans to introduce a radical and innovative system of automated entry and exit gates at Dubai International Airport to regulate the process of arrivals and departures. The new system, which is expected to go live at the airport from the middle of July, leverages best of breed technologies to ensure greater accuracy and further development of internal human resources. The DNRD, which will launch the pilot project by the middle of next month, has also launched a major campaign to generate awareness of the system amongst residents and visitors alike and to encourage greater use of the automated entry procedure. 

H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum said, "Dubai International Airport is ranked as the Middle East's busiest airport and one of the fastest growing airports in the world. Despite the impact of global events, it registered a 10 per cent growth in passenger throughput in the year 2001 to total 13.5 million. This trend has continued through the first quarter of 2002, which registered passenger movement at 3.8 million showing a growth of 8.5 per cent over the same period last year. Future projections anticipate a continuing growth to touch 30 million passengers by 2010. It is imperative that we take adequate measures to direct this growth in an organized manner. This new initiative by the Naturalization & Residency Administration Dubai to automate the passenger registration process by the introduction of electronic gates, will be a revolutionary step in this direction and we would like to congratulate the DNRD for formulating and developing such a pioneering concept."

"Dubai and indeed the UAE attract millions of business visitors and expatriate recruits from different parts of the world all of whom have to undergo detailed visa procedures to enter and leave the country. In addition, the strategic location and fast growing business scenario of the emirate, makes Dubai International Airport one of the busiest airports in the world. This enormous volume of passenger throughput and the resultant documentation procedures would become increasingly difficult to handle unless an organized system is in place to oversee all aspects of passenger movement," said Colonel Saeed Matter Bin Belailah, Director DNRD. "We have been seriously concerned with this matter and that is why we have devised this system of automated electronic gates that will not only speed up the registration of travellers through the airport but will also act as a significant barrier for illegal entrants into the emirate."

"The initiative is also in keeping with the vision of H.H. General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister to leverage the benefits of technology to ease the lives of citizens. The use of electronic gates at the airport is only one more in a long line of e-initiatives from the various government departments and is also in keeping with the objectives of Dubai e-Government," he added.

The electronic gates utilise the concepts of smart card identification and finger print identification to automate the registration process. The information system that manages the whole process including the electronic gate control, fingerprints and card issue has been completely devised and developed in-house by the IT department at the DNRD. The electronic gates, which are the first of their kind in the Middle East and a relatively new global concept, are expected to speed up the entire process of registration in addition to providing the DNRD with an improved control of the inbound and outbound travellers. The fingerprint identification is a very significant aspect of the system, which ensures that each person can only enrol once in the system. 

The new multi modular system has separate modules for enrolment, card printing, electronic gate and monitoring. First time users of the system can register at the enrolment office set up at the airport to be enrolled to the database. This enables the system to check the validity of the document submitted. The enrolment system also includes finger print enrolment and photo enrolment. Once registered, users of the system are supplied with a smart card that contains relevant identification information. In order to ensure maximum security and efficiency, the system is linked to a central monitoring unit that controls all operations.

"The electronic gate system is the result of over 10 months of concerted effort by the staff of our in-house IT department and has been devised using enhanced technologies which ensure that the service rendered is extremely accurate. It is also a very important move to curb fraud and impersonation at the entry and exit level as the gate will only allow those passengers into the system whose fingerprints match the enrolled identifications," said Major Khalid Majid Lootah, Head IT Section, DNRD. "The fact that we have not outsourced the information management system has also saved the DNRD over 70 per cent of the initial costs in addition to 60 per cent per gate. The only components of the equipment that have been outsourced are the gates, the fingerprint system, the ID cards." 

The electronic gates will be introduced in tandem with the existing manual ones, giving travellers the option to choose either form of entry or exit. Users can activate the automatic gates with the use of a pre-programmed smart card followed by finger print identification. Detailed instructions on procedures will be offered to the travellers at every step via the gates. The DNRD eventually plans to introduce the system at all entry and exit points in the emirate.

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