RAMS Requirements in Dubai: DM, Trakhees, DMCC — What Contractors Must Submit

First Question: Whose Land Are You On?

Dubai does not have a single construction-safety gatekeeper. Which authority reviews your RAMS depends on where the site sits: mainland Dubai falls under Dubai Municipality, the PCFC zones (JAFZA, the ports, Dubai Maritime City, Dubai Industrial City) fall under Trakhees, Jumeirah Lakes Towers falls under DMCC's community manager Concordia, electrical works everywhere in Dubai additionally touch DEWA, hot works touch Dubai Civil Defence, and every employer in the country answers to MOHRE. Before you write a single hazard row, confirm the jurisdiction — the wrong reference set is a classic rejection reason.

One thing is constant across all of them: high-risk subcontracted work needs a RAMS — a risk assessment and method statement — accepted before a permit to work is issued. What changes per authority is the submission channel, the permit categories and the details reviewers check.

Dubai Municipality (Mainland Dubai)

On mainland Dubai sites, construction safety sits inside Dubai Municipality's HSE management system (HSEMS) and its Code of Construction Safety Practice. DM expects a RAMS for high-risk tasks, and its inspectors check the familiar ground on site: permits to work, scaffold tags, PPE compliance and temporary electrical supplies.

For your RAMS this means the DM Code of Construction Safety Practice belongs in the reference list, and the controls should reflect it — for example, non-metallic ladders near electrical services, and heat-stress measures for outdoor work. Main contractors operating under DM translate these requirements into their own HSE plans, so expect the main contractor's reviewer to check your document against both.

Trakhees (JAFZA, Ports, Maritime City, Dubai Industrial City)

Trakhees, the regulatory arm of PCFC, governs the free-zone and port areas: JAFZA, the ports, Dubai Maritime City and Dubai Industrial City. Here the RAMS is not an attachment you sort out later — it is part of the portal submission itself, uploaded and reviewed through the Trakhees system before work authorization.

Trakhees operates its own permit-to-work regime with clearly defined categories: hot work, confined space, electrical isolation and work at height. Your RAMS should name exactly these permit categories and their issuing authority, and embed the permit hold points in the method statement sequence. Note also the incident-notification duty: incidents must be reported within 24 hours, and major incidents within 4 hours — your emergency-procedures section should reflect the regime you are under.

DMCC / JLT (Concordia)

In Jumeirah Lakes Towers, work access runs through the HSE Work Permit administered by Concordia on behalf of DMCC. No permit, no entry — building security enforces it at the gate, so this is one jurisdiction where the paperwork literally decides whether your crew works today.

The submission package goes beyond the RAMS itself: third-party liability insurance of at least AED 5,000,000, workmen's compensation cover, contractor all-risk insurance and completion of the required induction. The RAMS inside that package still has to stand on its own — scope-specific, with named roles and the right emergency arrangements for the building. In occupied towers, expect interface requirements: segregation of residents and visitors, out-of-hours scheduling for noisy works, and isolation permits arranged through facilities management.

DEWA — for Anything Electrical

Electrical works in Dubai add a second regulator regardless of zone: DEWA. Only DEWA-enrolled contractors and electricians may carry out LV installation work, the work must follow the DEWA Electrical Installations Regulations 2017, lockout/tagout is expected for isolation, and DEWA performs a final inspection before connection.

An electrical RAMS should therefore state DEWA enrolment in the competency requirements, reference the Electrical Installations Regulations 2017, and embed the isolation and energization permits as hold points. Competence evidence is a named rejection reason: if the RAMS does not show that the people doing the work are enrolled and qualified, expect it to come back.

Dubai Civil Defence and MOHRE

Welding, cutting and grinding anywhere in Dubai require a hot work permit under Dubai Civil Defence requirements, with the supporting fire-safety measures: fire extinguishers at a ratio of one ABC unit per 200 m² plus at hot work points, and a fire warden for every 50 workers. If your RAMS covers hot works, the DCD permit belongs in the permits section, with fire watch during the work and after it.

Above all emirate-level regimes sits the federal MOHRE layer under Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 — most visibly the midday work ban: no outdoor work under direct sun between 12:30 and 15:00 from 15 June to 15 September. Every RAMS for outdoor work in the UAE should show midday-ban compliance in its scheduling and heat-stress controls; a RAMS with no heat-stress measures is a named rejection reason.

The Ten Most Common Rejection Reasons

Across these authorities and the main contractors working under them, reviewers send RAMS back for a remarkably consistent set of reasons:

• Generic content that could apply to any site — not tied to your project, your scope, your crew
• Risk assessment not following the client's matrix — Abu Dhabi clients expect the OSHAD-SF risk assessment methodology
• Roles listed as "TBC" instead of named individuals
• Emergency plan referencing the wrong emirate
• Permit-to-work section without permit categories and issuing authorities
• Control measures detached from the method-statement steps, with no hold points
• No heat-stress measures — hydration, work-rest cycles, shade, midday ban
• Outdated revision, or dates and scope that do not match the submission
• No competence evidence — DEWA enrolment, IPAF/PASMA cards, trade qualifications
• For Trakhees: wrong format or submitted at the wrong stage of the portal process

Generate a Submission-Ready RAMS

RamsProof builds the document around exactly these checkpoints. The wizard asks for your emirate and project details, every template embeds permit hold points in the method steps with the issuing authority named, heat-stress controls are included in every work type, and each generated RAMS lists its references — the DM Code of Construction Safety Practice, OSHAD-SF CoP 11.0 (Safety in the Heat), the DEWA Electrical Installations Regulations 2017, MOHRE Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021 — so the reviewer sees the right framework from the first page.

Pick your work type, answer the five-step wizard, review the draft PDF with your competent person and issue the final version — the structure reviewers expect, without a blank page.

Frequently asked questions