Business & Finance Club - Manama : A major BD1 million ($2.65 million) revamp of the neglected King Faisal Corniche near the Bahrain Financial Harbour is set to begin next month.

The Manama Municipality wants to introduce better facilities for residents and people working in the area. Work on the project, which will include family rest areas, children's rides and a 1km walkway is expected to take up to six months to complete.

Meanwhile, the municipality has started removing monuments and greenery in co-ordination with the Works Ministry from near the Crowne Plaza to allow infrastructure work to begin on a new coastal bridge.

They will be reinstated at a cost of BD2 million whenever the project is completed.

Municipality director-general Yousif Al Ghatam said that the King Faisal Highway had also been earmarked for a major road revamp that would be carried out by the Works Ministry.

'This is an opportunity for us to start work on stalled projects we had in mind for that place, with a major revamp to the corniche topping our wish list,' he said.

'The current corniche will see some alterations with changes to some of its locations, but we promise everyone that the new one will be better, not just for the area's residents but for workers in nearby businesses and for investors.

'We hope that motorists will be patient whenever passing along the highway and policemen will be present to help direct traffic.'

Al Ghatam said that monuments and greenery close to the hotel would be removed completely within the coming two weeks to help the Works Ministry carry out infrastructure work on the new bridge.

'They will be reinstated by the contractor assigned by the ministry when work is completed under the project's assigned budget after an agreement was reached with officials,' he said.

'We have already removed other monuments and greenery from near the harbour and Bahrain Bay, which were also standing in the path of the new bridge.'

Al Ghatam said that Manama and the Diplomatic Area were facing huge traffic jams due to the road network not being able to cope with the number of vehicles, with more expected in future.

'To avoid problems in future we decided to sacrifice our property momentarily for a greater good,' he said.

'We are also planning major beautification schemes near the Diplomat junction, which will not be affected throughout the upcoming months and hopefully in a year's time the work will be completed.'