MANAMA, 27 August 2005 — An ambitious project to solve Bahrain’s housing problem over the next 10 years might result in the archipelago adding 19 man-made islands to its northwestern tip. This will bring the number of Bahraini islands to 52 if all goes according to plan.
Work on what has been described as the “country’s most important strategic housing project” is set to begin in November when a Dutch company starts the excavation and land reclamation leg of the three-phase project that is expected to cost $2.65 billion over the next 10 years.
Mohammed Al-Sayed, assistant undersecretary for housing and management at the Bahraini Ministry of Works and Housing, said that in the first and second phase set to begin immediately 12 islands would be built, with the remaining seven to be built in the third phase.
“We hope to have the first inhabitants of the island city move in by the end of 2008,” Al-Sayed said on Wednesday.
“The islands, which will be connected via a network of bridges, will have 18, 000 housing units as well as infrastructure facilities such as a commercial center, hospitals, a university, a sports center and a museum,” he said, adding that a state-of the-art road and metro network will be included.
The new city will cover an area of 1,067 hectares and has a capacity to accommodate 90,000 people.
Mamoon Al-Moayyed, secretary-general of Housing and Urban Development Committee, said that the project placed special emphasis on access to shorelines and preserving the marine environment. He said a number of studies had been carried out to ensure that the marine life and the region’s environment would not be affected by the construction of the city or excavation and land reclamation efforts.
“Working with the French consultation group for the project, which came up with the design for the city, we made every effort to avoid impacting the environment negatively,” Al-Moayyed said.
“Access for residents to the beaches has been important to us; that is why the city design aims to have the shoreline accessible within a few minutes’ walk from anywhere in the city,” he said.
Bahrain’s Crown Prince Sheikh Salman ibn Hamad Al-Khalifa, who is the chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Committee, laid the foundation stone for the project on Oct. 3, 2002. At the time officials suggested that the city would have 30, 000 housing units to accommodate about 150,000 people.
Al-Moayyed attributed the delay in completing the project to the extensive studies undertaken to ensure that the city’s design and building would meet the needs of the inhabitants, preserve the environment and offer services that are needed by the nearby villages. He said the aim of the project, the vision of the country’s young crown prince, was to offer homes for low-income families.
Two other housing projects on man-made islands are also being carried out at the same time south of the main island and north of Muharraq island but with a lesser inhabitant capacity and a more expensive price tag placed on the luxury homes.
Bahrain had for years undertaken projects to construct new housing communities to re-sell to its citizens at cost with payments spread over up to 20 years.
As of 2002, some 30,000 housing units, 20,000 plots and 15, 000 loans for building and renovations had been offered to the citizens through a number of housing projects.
According to housing officials there are more than 40,000 requests pending, with more than half of them being for homes.
Since taking office, the US-educated Sheikh Salman undertook a number of large projects to modernize the country and solve the unemployment problem. His efforts ranged from proposals to reform the labor market to building a large race circuit to host Formula One events.
