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Mussafah in the Dark

ABU DHABI — Last week’s rains have wreaked havoc in some parts of the industrial areas of Abu Dhabi. Sporadic power supply and frequent outages have hit small businesses and residents hard.

In some places in the industrial town of Mussafah-5, the rains have caused serious damage to the underground electric cables.

Several businessmen rang up Khaleej Times on Saturday to draw attention to their plight. The Abu Dhabi Distribution Company (ADDC), they claimed, had failed to restore the power supply despite repeated complaints.

“We lodged a complaint with the ADDC’s Mussafah office. But we were told that there were lots of such problems and that they would be solved one at a time,” said Amrith Sathish, Operations Manager of Al Makki Engineering and Technical Services Ltd, in the Mussafah industrial area.

“We managed to do some minor work using the single-phase supply available. But for the second consecutive day our operations have been badly affected,” he said.

At least 10-12 engineering workshops and other businesses in the industrial township have also complained of power outages since Monday last. Shops and residents are making do with generators till such time power is fully restored.

On Saturday afternoon, ADDC installed a temporary trawler-mounted mobile generator, in order to restore electricity supply to the six large apartment buildings opposite Fatima Supermarket behind Al Wahda Mall on Airport Road, where a 1500-KV transformer developed a fault in the morning.

Power supply had not been restored at the time of filing of this report. In some places, the damage has been severe and underground cables were still to be replaced.

Abdul Rehman Al Dhehary, Deputy Managing Director of ADDC said there was a small delay in solving the problems, as water had seeped into the underground cables, posing a threat to the safety of the workers.

Al Dhehary said 95 per cent of the repair work has been completed and by Saturday (midnight)electric supply would be restored, as the company’s emergency response teams were busy attending to the complaints.

news@khaleejtimes.com