Monday 18 February 2008

Power Supply Crisis

One does not need to be a rocket scientist to understand that keeping customers updated on the progress of investments they have made in your company is of the utmost importance if you are to keep them onboard, and if you want to ensure your company maintains a good profile. This simple fact seems to have eluded those in charge of running Al Hamra Estates. One comment posted by an investor sums up Al Hamra Estates position rather succinctly - “from Al Hamra there is only one reaction: nothing”. Another poster observes “vague suggestions that something will be done in 6 months are no different than the meaningless approximation of project completion dates”.

The latest rumour circulating on discussion forums revolves around the power supply (or rather lack of it) situation at Al Hamra. And rightly so, for without power any progress comes to a grinding halt. Even by UAE standards the delays faced by investors at Al Hamra Village are unprecedented. We can only conclude that somebody has seriously goofed here - either the developer is not liaising properly with the government regarding energy supplies or the government has not been forthcoming or knowledgeable about its own resources. In many countries there would be calls to instigate investigation into incompetency, corruption, etc. if such a thing was to happen.

We can only speculate (in the absence of any information from Al Hamra Estates) that in the short term, temporary solutions such as the use of water borne generators may be the answer. In the long term, there is undoubtedly an urgent need for new power plants to meet the growing demand for energy in RAK. Such facilities are unlikely to be ready until about the time Royal Breeze is completed, 3 or more years from now. In any case, it would it at least 18 months before any new plants could be built and in operation.

Some investors are saying that problems with FEWA will be resolved soon, even within the next 3 to 6 months. Others however are of the opinion that because of the large number of new developments in RAK, Al Hamra Estates is actually running out of energy, and the project may have to abandoned! A recent report by Coffee on the Eye on Worldwide forum may be of interest to investors:

Have just returned from a weekend at Al Hamra and understand that we may still be looking at several months before power is connected. Meantime whilst Management will have us believe that A & B blocks are completed and only awaiting service supplies, I took a wander and see that some ground floor apartments still have cables hanging from ceiling and walls and are nowhere near complete and no signs over the last couple of months of any work going on in these blocks - this may suggest that we really are still a long way off handover. Also on my walkabout I spotted that transformers and water units have been installed in the maintenance building alongside buildings B & C - so at least when FEWA have the supplies Al Hamra are seemingly in a position to move the supply into the buildings, which until very recently they were not! There seem to be markers going into the ground for the siting of Royal Breeze apartments, and again no sign of any physical construction work going on in these areas.

To finish off, since he has put it so well we cannot refrain from sharing this posters final comment:

...if only Management would share the truth with us all it would make the waiting much easier and stop these rumours which help nobody.......

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