Car battery replacement in Rolla

Rolla is the old commercial heart of Sharjah, east of Khalid Lagoon, named after a huge banyan tree that once stood in the area where Rolla Square Park is today. Low and mid-rise buildings crowd between Al Arouba Street and Al Zahra'a Street, with Rolla Mall, Souq Al Rolla, gold shops, tailors, travel agents and electronics repairers at street level and small flats above. Rents are low, so the area houses many shop workers and small families, and plenty of the cars are older saloons bought second-hand.

Old cars in tight streets is the Rolla formula. A ten-year-old saloon may carry a battery already two or three summers old, along with a worn alternator belt and corroded clamps. It is used for short runs to a wholesaler, or left for a week because moving it means losing the parking space. Shopkeepers also sit in parked cars with the AC running between customers. When the battery finally quits, the car is usually wedged in a lane with deliveries trying to get past.

Rolla has some of the hardest parking in Sharjah. Spaces round Rolla Square Park are normally full, the lanes inside the market are narrow, and the paid plots fill with traders' vehicles. The technician often leaves his vehicle a short walk away and carries the battery and jump pack in. Tell him which shop or hotel you are next to. If the car is blocking a lane, a jump start comes first so it can be moved.

From Al Taawun the technician goes by Al Wahda Street and King Faisal Street to Al Arouba Street, or round the lagoon on Corniche Street when the highway is jammed. The last few hundred metres through the market streets are the slowest part of the trip.