BD60M BILL!

By MOHAMMED AL A'ALI
MANAMA: The government is facing a BD60 million bill for land that it wants to purchase and develop in the Central Governorate.
A municipal councillor says that is how much it will take to satisfy landowners, who are reluctant to sell and claim they are being forced into handing land over at the current rates rather than future prices.
The lands, located near Salmabad and Sehla, have been earmarked for investment and housing projects including Investment Towers, which has already been approved.
"The landowners are being forced to accept because they have no other choice and at the rate the ministry decides, or have their lands taken away for free," said Central Municipal Councillor Sayed Abdulla Al A'ali.
"The ministry has come up with three unofficial choices, either decrease service outlets planned for the developed area, decrease the percentage of lands cut or compensate landowners with lands with the same value elsewhere or nearby."