DUBAI: The UAE’s love affair with the car is well documented, so are the dangers, but the government has recently been introducing a series of tough new laws and penalties to turn this around.
The latest is a set of new rules restricting the modification of cars, especially the vehicle’s performance, UAE daily The National has reported.
Under cabinet decision 45 of 2016 new limits on how much motorists can alter the engine, exhaust system and transmission, have been introduced – as well as other areas.
Failure to comply with the new laws will carry a jail term as well as a possible minimum 30,000 dirham ($8,170) fine. Any items that do not comply with the new standards will be confiscated.
It is the first time such restrictions have been made official, previously there were no limits legislated.
And the law extends to the country’s workshops and people with existing modified vehicles, which will now have to apply for a special certificate from Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology, the report added.
Motorcycles, trailers, caravans and tractors are excluded from the new rules.
However other changes impacted include certain braking systems, bull bars, the vehicle chassis and suspension.
“The whole thing needs to be balanced… Quality of work is sometimes not dispensed, and fuel not safe and you end up with a catastrophe, especially if someone doesn’t know what they are doing,” Al Tareq Al-Ameri CEO at Yas Marina Circuit explained to the newspaper.
“The whole activity of modifying vehicles has been happening for years but there were no regulations for the type of equipment or technical work that happens… This needs to be regulated and it has been under discussion in the community for years.”
In order to get a modification license, motorists will need to have their altered vehicles examined by the vehicle inspection modification center, which was launched at Yas Marina Circuit.