Raha Gardens residents to quit popular suburb over ‘inconsiderate’ roadworks
Little argument that the work is necessary, but there are concerns over slow progress as well as safety issues
Residents are planning to leave a popular Abu Dhabi suburb because of what they call disruptive, slow and dangerous roadworks.
Raha Gardens, an Aldar community managed by Khidmah, is in the middle of a major project to upgrade drains and repave roads across the sprawling development of more than 1,400 homes in Khalifa City A.
The work started last summer and has led to complaints from residents in recent weeks.
Many agree that the work needs to be done, but they claim it is often carried out slowly and in an unsafe manner.
One resident claimed a stonecutter with a sharp blade had been left in her street.
“I go on a daily walk with my son at around 5pm,” said L H, a resident and member of an Emirati group of owners who have contacted Khidmah about their concerns.
“I am a cautious parent but not every parent is like me. Their children might be roaming around in front of the villa or in the community.”
Helen, a mother of two young children, took video of a digger bucket filled with bricks sweeping over her garden.
“My initial concern was that something would fall and break a window and hurt someone,” she said.
Another resident posted a picture on the Raha Gardens Community Facebook page that showed work being powered by using an electricity socket in her garage.
Many also said the work is slow. One resident said it took one day to dig up the bricks on her street, and another day to relay them. The workers left the site after that but, 12 days later, the road is littered with bricks and blocked by piles of sand on each side.
L H said repaving a road near her home took more than a month.
“The road adjacent to our house took 34 days to complete,” she said. “For such a small road that was really slow and we had to endure a lot of dust and a lot of noise.”
She formed an owners’ group with 13 other resident owners last year, months before the works started in her area, to try to address concerns they had. They handed a petition with the signatures of 130 owners to Khidmah on October 30.
It said that, among other concerns, they were not receiving the service they would expect in return for the “high service charge”, and claimed maintenance was poor, with broken playground gates and fountains.
They said communication was often poor or lacking altogether.
“The common stereotype out there is that the landlord is a millionaire with multiple properties and doesn’t care about the community they live in,” LH said. “It’s completely the contrary.
“Most of us have put our life savings in the properties and we really care about the community we live in. And most of us do live in the community that we have purchased in, so it is a priority for us that the community quality of life is up to standard.”
She and her husband now plan to leave the community, something she would not have done had the management been better. And they are not the only ones.
“We just moved here from Dubai in August last year and love it here,” Craig said. “However, we are going to move in August because of what we’ve seen will eventually hit us.
“Having seen the construction work there just seems to be no progress whatsoever or consideration for how this is actually impacting the residents. We are dreading this reaching us.”
Abdulla Al Qamzi, managing director of Khidmah, said Aldar had appointed qualified contractors and consultants to carry out the phased works, which began in July and are scheduled for completion in July next year.
“Khidmah, which manages Al Raha Gardens Community, does not oversee the roadworks,” Mr Al Qamzi said.
“However, we have worked to facilitate the process and expedite the work by notifying tenants of the project’s progress, as well as taking all possible measures to minimise disruption to the community.
“We regret any inconvenience caused during the current roadworks and repair phase. We urge residents and owners to rest assured that Aldar and Khidmah are doing their best to expedite the process and to minimise any inconvenience caused.”
He encouraged residents to contact Khidmah’s call centre at 800 5443624 or email customercare@khidmah.com with any concerns.