|
The cost of the inspection required for a vehicle licence will double
next week, rising to Dh120 (US$33) from Dh60, Abu Dhabi Police and
Adnoc announced.
The decision to raise inspection fees on February 1 the first
increase in 10 years coincides with the energy company’s plan to
increase the number of inspection bays at its centres in Abu Dhabi and
Al Ain, cutting waiting times to six minutes from 10 minutes.
More vehicle inspection centres would open in the next six months, said
Nasser Ali al Hammadi, the assistant general manager for retail at
Adnoc. “The mobile station will serve the island, Delma, until we
have built there and it will also help to serve the big companies, like
big taxi companies,” Mr al Hammadi said at a press conference.
Last month, Adnoc and Abu Dhabi Police signed an agreement for the energy company to expand its vehicle-inspection services.
Without disclosing all the locations of the planned new inspection
centres, Mr al Hammadi said there would be one on the Corniche and
others at Al Mushrif petrol station and in Khalifa City A. Others were
scheduled for Al Ain, and Madinat Zayed in Al Gharbia. “The
Western Region is very important,” said Mr al Hammadi. “There is the
Abu Dhabi plan to develop the Western Region, and we are planning to go
with that.”
Vehicle inspections include checking the quality of tyres, examining
the chassis and vehicle structure and an emissions test. Last year,
450,000 vehicles were inspected at Adnoc centres. Mr al Hammadi
said the price increase was necessary to recoup some of the costs of
the expansion and upgrades, as well as Adnoc’s Emiratisation
programme. About 50 per cent of employees in the company’s
vehicle inspection department are Emiratis, including 21 qualified
technicians licensed by Abu Dhabi Police, according to Adnoc.
Adnoc said it was moving ahead with plans to introduce “green diesel”,
which has a sulphur content of 10 parts per million, compared with its
current diesel, which has 500 parts per million. The company has
an agreement with an unnamed company to introduce inspection services
for vehicles running on natural gas, a cleaner alternative to petrol.
Last year, the company announced plans to build 16 compressed
natural-gas pumping stations.
PetrolWorld 300110
|
