Thousands of festive lights set Abu Dhabi aglow

Thousands of festive lights set Abu Dhabi aglow
By Rayeesa Absal, Staff Reporter GULF NEWS Published: October 09, 2007, 23:51

Abu Dhabi: The city's exuberant mood is set during the Eid holiday by thousands of multicoloured lights that bring the capital aglow.

The garlands of lights draped across buildings add a real holiday atmosphere with the city's well known skyscrapers twinkling for all to see.

Three Indian brothers Yousuf Karikkayil, Salam and Kabeer are behind the bright lights in the big city and work hard for days to design and create the look of buildings such as the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industries.

The Karikkayils' business, the Light Tower, is also behind the buildings of the ADNOC group of companies such as the ADNOC headquarters and the Etisalat buildings, to name but a few.

In fact, the Light Tower has been contracted to do the lighting jobs for many of the capital's landmark buildings over the past years. And not just for Eid, but also for all other festive days such as National Day.

"I have decorated the Chambers building for the last 15 years, ADNOC for the last 10 years and the National Drilling Company (NDC) for the last nine years," said Yousuf, adding their job is not for novices.

"The foremost constraint is that during a festive season all the buildings have to be decorated at the same time. Also we have to mind the wind speed for safety reasons, two people are engaged at a time and as they work if the wind seems to get harder we have to stop. Well-trained workers are a must."

Talking about a very special design, Yousuf said that last year to mark National Day celebrations the NDC building was lit up using more than 100,000 bulbs.

Blue LED bulbs were used for this expensive type of decoration. It usually takes 25 days to decorate a building but sometimes for bigger buildings we take up to 45 days, he added.