City Council is preventing electricity connections to certain places in Male

State Electric Company Limited (STELCO) has said that they are unable to provide some electricity services in Male’, due to the temporary disruption of certain services provided by the Male’ City Council to STELCO.

Speaking at a news conference held today, Deputy Managing Director of STELCO Mohamed Latheef said that the company has not been able to provide electricity connections to certain places since last Wednesday, because Male’ City Council has stopped issuing them permits to dig the roads to bury cables, which is necessary for the provision of some electricity services.

“As the nature of the services provided by this company are such that we require the assistance and cooperation of the municipal service provider of the state, and because Male’ City Council has currently ceased providing its services, the subsequent result is that the company is now unable to provide certain public services. Some of the services that require the permission of the City Council include digging street sides, burying cables and certain tasks that require the roads to be closed off,” said Latheef.

He also said that City Council’s reason for the temporary halt on issuing permits, is that STELCO complies with the regulation which states that permits have to be obtained from the relevant government departments prior to provision of electricity to lands which have been transferred from the City Council to the government’s jurisdiction.

He also said that they have had comprehensive talks in this regard with the City Council, but have yet to find a solution.

He said that electricity is a vital service, and called upon all mediators to refrain from measures that can disrupt STELCO’s services.

Ibrahim Naashid, STELCO’s Engineer said they receive an average of 10 to 12 electricity connection requests daily, and that about 16 requests received over the past four days remain unmet.

He said that they are now only able to provide connection services through panel boards fixed in homes and that they are unable to provide electricity to places that require burying cables.

“There are about 15, 16 places pending which we’ve not been able to provide electricity to during the past four days. Not all places require cables to be buried in order for us to provide electricity. We can provide connections from panel board or distribution boxes in houses. These are the types of connections we are providing now. But if it’s a task that requires burying cables, it is now pending,” said Naashid.