TWO company heads cemented their working relationship at the inauguration ceremony of the new Al Shirawi Complex at Ras Al Khor.

The Dhs 25 million complex is home to the Group's contracting, electrical and mechanical engineering divisions and sister company, Leminar Air Conditioning, and incorporates warehouse facilities, a factory, showroom and offices, all installed with the latest technology.

The official opening was ndertaken by Al Shirawi Group's chairman, Abdulla Al Shirawi and the President of the Rheem Corporation, Gary Tapella, was alongside Mr. Al Shirawi at the ceremony.
Executive director, Navin Valrani, explained: "'The Rheem Corporation is one of the largest manufacturers of residential and commercial air-conditioning equipment in the world and one of our sister companies represents their products here in Dubai. Six months ago we invited Mr. Tapella to join us for the official opening and he accepted along with three of his delegates."In all, more than 100 people were at the ceremony, including shareholders and many of the staff based at the new site.

" After the cutting of the ribbon the group was given a tour of the new building, including the workshop and stores, and in the evening a dinner was hosted in honour of the visitors," continued Mr Valrani. "For Mr Tapella it was his first visit to the region, but although he was only in Dubai for three days it's nice to know that he's already hoping to return at a later date."

NEW contracts could soon be in the pipeline following the successful completion of the Al Nahda shopping complex in Sharjah.

The speed and professionalism of Al Shirawi's waterproofing division resulted in a letter of praise from the site manager of Bin Laden, the main contractor working on the Sharjah complex.

This is a real accolade for the division and one which should help to boost Al Shirawi's business profile.

In charge of the project was contracts manager, S. Sekhar, who commented: "Although these sort of letters are occasionally given, it's quite unusual. It shows that Bin Laden was really satisfied with our work and will now recommend us to other companies."

FOLLOWING the completion of a string of highly successful, high profile contracts, another new complex is now up and running thanks to the work of two Al Shirawi departments.

The electrical, plumbing, and air conditioning teams were involved with a Dh3 million contract for the Lacnor development of staff accommodation
in the heart of the Sharjah district with United Engineering Company as the main contractor and Khatib and Alami as the consultants.

Overseeing the air conditioning for the project for AI Shirawi was P R Hari Krishnan, senior manager, planning and projects. He explained: "Once the contract was signed I started with the planning and drew up provisional design plans before commissioning and installation.

"Once under way, we were working to have the job completed in three months and we achieved that. One of our strong points is that we plan very precisely so we know exactly what's supposed to happen and when, and we've got a good team of technicians devoted to the job."

lbrahim Khallouf, general manager of the electrical and plumbing division, commented: " As well as fitting the electrical and plumbing, the job of my division was also to install the main fire alarm and satellite systems.

"We worked with a team consisting of two engineers, one each for the electrical and plumbing work, two foremen and 60 technicians, 30 for each division. With their hard work we completed the work right on schedule."

Added Hari Krishnan: " Al Shirawi was given an opportunity to show the company's capability, proving that we could meet the requirements and qualifications of Khatib and Alami.

"We have an efficient system to monitor our work process and an internal structure to put this system in place. If anything goes wrong it's because we're not using those systems we've created. We also have a team of engineers who are very competent and hopefully their skills will bring further work for us in the future."

 

 

EMPLOYEES at Gulf News could be forgiven for spending all day staring at the ceiling.

When the news office decided to move into the building next door, false ceilings were just part of the work that was undertaken by Al Shirawi's interiors section. Other work at the site involved the construction of partitions to separate different office areas.

Explained divisional manager of the interiors department, Raj Pal Saran: "We fitted different types of ceiling for the production, office and corrider areas, including patterned, aluminium and mineral fibre tiles, gypsum board and plain ceiling tiles. We also fitted fixed gypsum partitions to separate the different departments.

"This was a very prestigious project for us, working as sub contractors for the consultant, Arkiteknik. The project was very tight on deadlines and at some points we had up to 70 labourers on site at a time, but with a lot of hard work we managed to finish on schedule."

IN BRIEF

AL SHIRAWI is on the verge of opening its new air conditioning service center. It will include advanced coil cleaning equipment and a computerised test bench for verifying faulty compressors.

THE DUCT Shop is installing another state-of-art plasma cutting machine, which will allow AL Shirawi to produce up to 12,000 square feet of ducting per day.

 

FROM roofs to roads, S Sekhar helps to ensure that everyone can live in a safe, comfortable environment.

As a contracts manager within Al Shirawi's waterproofing and road marking divisions, Sekhar is in charge of a team of 15 engineers and supervisors, and 80 workers.

Once a contract is won, they are responsible for carrying out waterproofing on roofs and the substructure of building or painting traffic markings along new stretches of road, all of which is overseen by Sekhar.

He took over as Contracts Manager in the waterproofing division in 1996, just as the road-marking division was being established. Both sides of the business have since grown rapidly.

Sekhar said: " As a civil engineering graduate, I came to the company with 27 years' experience gained from working with major engineering companies in Nigeria, India and the Sultanate of Oman and now, of course, in the UAE.

"During the next six months we've got quite a few big projects coming up. It's going to be a very busy time, but it's something I'm looking forward to and it will be beneficial to the Al Shirawi Group."