Trucks can now use a part of Al Wahda Road, a main thoroughfare through Sharjah which has been closed for the last year while redevelopment works are carried out, but the emirate still remains an anathema for most, truck operators say.
Firstly, an update in truck timings mean that heavy vehicles are not allowed on the Ring Road from the Industrial Square 5 to Waset Square station from 5:30am to 12 midnight.
The trucks can now begin using the roads on which they were earlier banned from 5:30am to 9:30am.
Confusingly, trucks are also banned three times a day from Al Badayeh intersection to the Fifth Industrial Square from 5:30am to 9:30am, 1pm to 3pm and from 5:30pm to 9:30pm.
Meanwhile, a spate of blackouts throughout September, due to an overloaded grid, has wreaked havoc among businesses.
Mr. R Menon from plant contractor German Gulf Engineering said. “We are actually moving our lowbeds after midnight at the moment” he said. “The truck timings are very confusing – and even when the road is available, it is jammed.
The issue is that the roads just were not built for this kind of haulage.” He added that his offices kept three gensets on standby, as the power grid was still “not quite stable”.
