Beauty treatment for Manama markets

Face-lift for shopping centresSandeep Singh GrewalContributorMarkets and houses in the Kingdom are being given a face-lift in cooperation with the Ministry of Municipalities Affairs and Agriculture and the Manama Municipal Council.The secretary of the council, Jassim Redha Hussain, told the Tribune yesterday that the ministry was in the process of renovating the existing buildings and markets. “We plan to convert the Central Market into an indoor shopping market. This BD60 million project in the pipeline aims to develop separate wholesale shopping areas, and separate loading and unloading venues for fish and meat. “There will also be a provision for parking spaces for about 3,000 cars and this will mean easy access for traders.”He said the parking situation in the Capital was getting worse and the council planned to acquire more plots of land, but the land price was a big hurdle.Providing an update on the renovation and reconstruction of old houses under a national project initiated by His Majesty the King, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the secretary said 6,000 old houses would be demolished and replaced with the new ones. “We have received 228 applications. Of these houses, 20 have been completed and 10 are under construction.”He said: “A social services project has been launched to help renovate or expand old houses by adding an additional room in each flat. In this regard, we have received 139 applications and 10 houses are being renovated. The project aims to raise citizens’ living standards.”Each house under the rehabilitation project costs about BD20,000, while the services under the social services project cost about BD3,000.There is also a project for 16 parks in the Capital Governorate. Of these, 10 have been built. The 16-park project is the largest that has been approved for a governorate. This has been done in cooperation with the Ministry of Housing and Works, the General Directorate of Traffic and the Roads Department.