Fenaka Corporation has stated that the delay in bringing the L. Maamendhoo ice plant into operation is due to the unavailability of spare parts needed to repair its genset.
The L. Maamendhoo ice plant has been out of operation for over five months. Fishermen in the atoll have been expressing concern over the non-operation of the ice plant. This is because Horizon, which operates in Maandhoo in the atoll, does not sell enough ice to meet the needs of the vessels, and the price of the ice sold is high. As the L. Atoll region is an area where many fishing vessels from other atolls also come to fish, the shutdown of the Fenaka-operated ice plant has caused difficulties for fishermen in obtaining ice.
L. Maamendhoo ice plant genset issue to be resolved and services to resume within two to three days: Fenaka
Fenaka stated that the ice plant operations have halted because its genset is broken, and the facility can only be brought back into operation by repairing the genset. While Fenaka has announced (RFQ) twice to procure the necessary equipment to repair the genset, no party submitted a bid the first time. The deadline for the second announcement expired at 10:00 am last Monday. Fenaka said that efforts are underway to bring the ice plant into operation as soon as possible, and that services will resume once the genset is repaired as soon as the spare parts are received.
Fenaka decided to stop operating ice plants on August 1st. With that, the process of handing over the 17 ice plants operated by the company to MIFCO has begun, and so far three ice plants have been handed over to MIFCO. They are:
R. Alifushi – 25 tons (flakes)
GA. Dhaandhoo – 25 tons (flakes)
Fenaka has previously stated that it will continue to provide ice to fishermen without interruption until the process of handing over the ice plants to MIFCO is completed.
The L. Maamendhoo ice plant is a 50-ton capacity ice plant. If ice is produced by running two compressors simultaneously, one and a half tons of ice can be produced in an hour.
