Move to tackle expat singles menace

By Naila Barakat: Benefiting from the Kuwaiti and Dubai experience, the Manama Municipal Council has decided to set up a committee to solve the ‘menace’ of expatriate bachelors.The council will also set up a committee to tackle the problem of mushrooming educational institutions which hire villas and change them into training centres.“Activities of bachelor expatriates living in the neighbourhoods of families have created a number of problems. “Several families have asked us to shift the bachelors who are living in groups in small villas or apartments,” council secretary Jassim Redha said yesterday.“The council has decided to form a committee to tackle the menace. We are trying to find special areas where the bachelors can live so that they are away from the residential areas where families live. We will offer the bachelors all the services required.“We are trying to benefit from the experience of Kuwait and Dubai. The Kuwaiti authorities have constructed a complex comprising cinema, shopping centres and other facilities. “The companies that require the services of bachelors have taken these places from the government on rent. As a result, single expatriate men have got all services and facilities at the same place. “Similarly the council is trying to solve the problem in a way that will benefit everybody,” he said.The formation of the committees is part of a master plan which will be discussed at the first meeting of the fourth session of the council on Tuesday. “The other committee will define regulations for educational institutes in the Capital. Educational institutes are mushrooming within residential areas and we don’t have any law to prevent it. The institutions are renting old villas and changing them into training centres. “Both committees will be activated during the fourth session of the council,” he added.“All the committees of the council have started holding meetings to finalise the pending projects and discuss matters which were pending during the previous session. “The fourth session aims to focus on the master plan for the Manama city. We will prepare the main drawings of the districts and the new zoning regulations. “The council is earmarking new areas for highrise buildings, especially near Al Fateh in Juffair, Seef district, King Faisal Highway and other places in the Capital,” he said.Redha said that the council was focusing on a vertical expansion and development of new areas The council is changing a number of residential villas into three-storey buildings to preserve the identity and basic features of various areas and provide more flats and apartments to meet the demand for housing units. “The special committee for commercial roads is going ahead with its plan to change new roads into commercial roads,” Redha said.