'Success breeds success' is an oft-repeated quote,but Al Shirawi's waterproofing unit proved it beyond a shadow of doubt.The Knowledge Village is being seen as one of the biggest success stories since Al Shirawi started its waterproofing activities in the 1980s.

Project details: S.Sekhar, Contracts Manager, explained: "The project involved an area of 35,000m2 and 2100 pile-head treatments".The first phase involved waterproofing the sub-structure.The workers are now waterproofing the roof.

Sekhar firmly believes that Al Shirawi landed the waterproofing contract because it was best suited in terms of capability,mobilisation of manpower and material, and finance.

Execution: Despite all odd-peak summer,gas torches,on-site catering,the team completed the project ahead of schedule by working day and night, even on Fridays.Sekhar said,"Oncompletion of the first phase, the workers felt a sense of pride and achievement.They are eager to get more such projects."

Both Al Basti & Mukhta and Dar Consult, the main contractor and consultants respectively,were thoroughly impressed with Al Shirawi's work. "They did a perfect job and we have no complaints," confirms Bassam Adi, Project Manager at Dar Consult. "We have specified Al Shirawi for three big forthcoming projects."

Sekhar feels that "the Knowledge Village will be a forerunner for many jobs in the future.

On 30 Octobar, Al Shirawi was honoured with an award from Boral ME for being their 'number one ceiling contractor' and largest client in Dubai. The award was presented by Boral's Regional Manager, Olivier Chaudet to Raj Pal Saran, General Manager of Al Shirawi's Interiors business.

Boral is one of world's most renowned manufaturers of gypsum boards, tiles, ceilings, and partition accessories. Al Shirawi has used Boral's systems for many prestigious projects including Al Gurg Tower, Dubai Convention Centre and the Wafi Mall extension.

Boral offers excellent client relationship management,sales and technical support."I particularly want to express our appreciation of their Marketing Manager Amer bin Ahmed, Technical Manager Gerhard Berelien and the overall support from Olivier Chaudet," says Raj.

In a very short time, Boral has become one of the largest suppliers of ceiling systems in the Middle East. "We have many more projects in the pipeline and look forward to a long and fruitful association with them," concluded Raj.

The 18-storey Al Gurg Tower located near the Dubai Chanber of Commerce & Industry on Baniyas Street, is one of the most high profile buildings in the neighbourhood. Al Shirawi is justifiably proud to have been associated with the
project, which was completed on schedule.

Al Shirawi was able to meet all the criteria and standards set by the main contractor, M/s Khansaheb Civil Engineering, and the consultant, M/s Norr Group.

The scope of works specified the installation of suspended ceilings. Just the perforated aluminium tiles covered a total area of 12,000 m2. Gypsum board ceilings and decorative gypsum bulkheads have also been extensively used.

"We would like to take this opportunity to thank Khansaheb and Norr Group for awarding us the contract and for their unstinting support during the project," says Raj Pal Saran, General Manager of Al Shirawi's Interiors business.

Recently, Al Shirawi successfully completed the electrical and plumbing works for the 50-villa project for Dubai Municipality, the prestigious house scheme for Emiratis located in the Al Quoz residential area.

The main contractor, M/s Bhatia General Contracting awarded the project to Al Shirawi after conducting extensive sub-contractor evaluations. M/s Meecon Consultants closely scrutinised all the materials used throughout the project.

The scope of the electrical works involved complete lighting and power,telephone and television sockets, and electricals for the air-conditioning systems. "The project was fast and challenging," says John Kurian, the Project Engineer. He was thankful for the full support and co-operation the team received from Vinod Bhatia, the Project Manager at Bhatia Contracting and Qusay Al Shaffar, the Resident Engineer at Meecon.

Abdelilah Mohd Hassan, the Plumbing Engineer, reports that the project was challenging because Dubai Municipality are highly guality-conscious and demand that work progresses accurately and to specifications.Technical and weekly meetings are routine, engineers are on-site testing and directly supervising work."We were able to meet all their specifications because we have highly qualified staff and workers. Both Dubai Municipality and Bhatia Contracting were very happy with our work," says Abdelilah. He was all praise for Sandeep, the Project Engineer at Bhatia and Engineer Ahad, the Resident Engineer at Meecon.

Abdelilah singled out Javed Iqbal,a helper in his division, for high praise saying,"He really knows his job well and the team depended on him a lot."

In fact, so smoothly and quickly did on-site work progress that Bhatia Contracting was able to hand over the project ahead of the deadline. Dubai Municipality was highly pleased with both- the delivery and the project outcome.

Dubai Municipality is well aware of Al Shirawi's formidable corporate strengths, including its ISO certification. Both share an excellent client-subcontractor rapport."We are always eager to quote for Dubai Municipality's projects," said Abdelilah "and are currently executing a number of its projects." John was all praise for the teams and thought that they owed part of the success to the highly co-ordinated efforts of the plumbing and electrical teams. "Everybody, from the manager to the worker was involved, which is why the project was completed well within the deadline," said John. "Another important factor was our General Manager Dr.Ibrahim Khallouf, who helped tremendously by solving any problems that arose and quickly taking decisions.

 

One of the indications of tremendous success enjoyed by Al Shirawi Electrical and Mechanical Engineering is the inauguration of its After-sales Sharjah branch in November 2002. The rationale for the very first branch of the company: take the company closer to its customers.

"Currently we have about 50 contracts in Sharjah and the Northern Emirates. We intend to increase our physical proximity to our customers and give them added-value. The branch will help us to better allocate time and resources on-site," said M.Mansingh, the energetic Service Manager. The branch is also expecting to secure additional contracts, given Sharjah's booming real estate sector.

The branch has set-up the necessary communication hardware and networking softwarethat enables effective utilisation of resources. "We have re-allocated some staff and also recruited a new engineer to manage the Sharjah Branch," explained Mansingh.

Al Shirawi has over 100 employees in its after-sales business unit and expects to expand by a further 20 per cent in the coming months. For now, the company is busy exulting over securing a highly prestigious maintenance contract from Dubai Municipality.

Al Shirawi has gone from strength to strength and is today one of the leaders in the industry. One of the reasons for this enormous success has undoubtedly been the dedication of its loyal staff.Nothing illustrates this better than the six skilled workers who were presented with certificates for providing 25 years of unstinted service to the company.

Dayal singh (carpenter), Gangaram Thudmu (applicator),Jarnil Singh (electrician),Savarlal Gajanan (helper), Ravindran Pillai (foreman), and Subramaniam Chettiyar (welder)all joined the company in 1977.

The reasons they cite for such commitment to Al Shirawi are varied and interesting. Incentives,timely promotion, training, recognition of hard work, benevolent management have all contributed in keeping them in the same organisation for almost all their adult lives. In an industry plagued by late or no payments,Al Shirawi has never delayed paying staff salaries.

Ravindra Pillai,who joined as a technician and was promoted as foreman three years back, explained: "The company provided me with ISO and technical training. It has excellent rules and regulations, and make payments and salaries on time. The management is very co-operative. When I joined, we were a small company of 25-30 workers doing air-conditioning works, but today we are a large company doing electrical,plumbing,contracting and more."

Dayal Singh loves his work environment and smiles saying "importantly we get our salary on time." Others have and more are due to mark their silver anniversaries soon - Stephen Anthony, for example, will complete his on 12 February.