Bahrain’s public parks and other facilities could be in line for a facelift after an additional BD15 million ($39.5 million) budget was requested for maintenance, a report said.

The Capital Trustees Board has asked for the cash after 20 additional gardens and parks were put under its control, reported the Gulf Daily News (GDN),our sister publication.

It is in addition to BD11 million already sought by the body to fund its activities, vice-chairman Mazen Alumran told the GDN.

“We earlier requested a BD11 million budget for the board’s activities in 2015-2016,” he said.

“An additional 20 parks and gardens from blocks in the old Central Governorate and the Northern Governorate were transferred to us by the end of April, including those in Jidhafs, Sitra and Ma’ameer.

“For this we need an additional budget and have requested BD15 million, making it a total of BD26 million, which we are waiting to be approved,” he added.

He said the extra money would be used to pay for revamps at places such as Adhari Park and the Manama Central Market.

It follows complaints from Sitra residents about the poor state of Al Kubra Garden, Sitra.

Alumran said that was among the 20 additional public facilities now being handled by the Capital Trustees Board.

He revealed the body was now responsible for close to 60 public facilities and had already carried out renovation and maintenance at 31 parks and gardens since December.

“Most of these gardens, when they were handed over to us, were in bad shape and we are happy that we could do the maintenance work to make it good for public use,” said Alumran.

“This garden (Al Kubra) is among many that don’t have a maintenance contract in place nor security guards. As we know the national budget was delayed and now we are waiting for our budget to be approved so that we can work on these parks.”

He said the board had not received an official complaint about Al Kubra Garden, but urged people to contact it directly to report concerns about any public facility under its authority.

“It will help us act faster if people could reach out to us directly,” he said.

The GDN reported on Monday that the Works, Municipalities and Urban Planning Affairs Ministry was also planning to plant trees and flowers across Bahrain, under a new initiative to give each highway, avenue and road its own distinctive design. – TradeArabia News Service