On Friday, September 9, 2011, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, officially inaugurated Dubai Metro's Green Line, the latest addition to the city's transport network. The Green Line, extends to 23km and is serviced by 18 stations 16 of which were inaugurated in the presence of Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
On arrival at Dubai Healthcare City station, where the ceremony was held, Sheikh Mohammed unveiled a plaque marking Dubai Metro's status as the longest driverless rail system in the world, as recognised by the Guinness Book of Records.
Before boarding the metro at Dubai Healthcare City Station, Sheikh Mohammed unveiled the plaque of a monument which holds Sheikh Mohammed’s words: "Thank God we were able to turn the dream into a concrete reality and great achievements."
Sheikh Mohammed noted that opening Dubai Metro's Green Line on schedule, he himself had set, was a challenge in itself given the global financial crisis, saying that the project had to be completed on time to avoid disruption to Dubai's 2015 Strategic Plan. In this regard, Sheikh Mohammed said: "I decided to follow this project through to completion so that we could ready ourselves for future initiatives."
"Dubai Metro", at a cost of AED 15.5 billion aims to reduce traffic congestion and the time consumed during transport mobility. It also aims to reduce pollution caused by vehicle emissions.
The total number of Dubai Metro - Green Line’s passenger flights reached 2,992,195 trips at the end of July 2012.
The launch of Dubai Metro is compatible with the description of Dubai as the city related to Einstein's theory of relativity; the Metro represents leap of time in the quality of achievement featured on the regional and global levels, and thus Dubai, with its speeding up its achievements and projects, heads towards the future time very quickly to be in the forefront of human civilization.
It is worth mentioning that the first idea of the project dates back to 1997, stating Dubai would not be able to rely entirely on the regular transport system across roads only to meet increasing traffic needs. The results of the study also recommended the need for a transient transport system which helps to reduce traffic congestion.
On completion of the Dubai Metro project, it will be spanning on a total length of 166 kilometers (83 mi) of lines, and 77 stations (including 9 underground stations).
